World War Three: Wraiths (RWBY AU)
by RavenRose8
Summary: Russia has invaded Europe and attacked the US, starting World War Three. The year is 2024 and Ruby Rose-Schnee has been away from the world for three years, but when the Wraith pilots have almost all died off, there is a need for her again but will she be able put away the death of her wife behind her to fly again with a new partner? (RWBY AU, Modern world and future stuff)
1. Chapter 1

**A/N**

**This was written over a month ago, alongside a second chapter that I will edit and look at another day.**

**I don't own anything, nothing whatsoever.**

**This will feature most of the cast of RWBY in some shape or form, but Ruby will be older then the others, it will become clearer when i post the next chapter. **

* * *

><p>September 8th 2021<p>

A loud alarm blared out through the speakers waking the two occupants of the room.

Ruby Rose-Schnee's eyes opened wide as she heard the alarm, her wife Weiss Rose-Schnee woke up at the same time and both of their bodies started to work on automatic.

They were only dressed in underwear as both worked on their skin tight under armour suits and within a minute of hearing the alarm both women were running out of their room towards the hanger bay.

The year is 2021 and it has been 3 years since Russia has attacked Europe and the US.

In the year 2017 the Schnee Advance Weaponry Corporation created a new jet fighter, however this wasn't what was revolutionary. It was how the jet was piloted.

It used a similar design to the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter in use of the cockpit and main body of the aircraft, however it also took idea's from the V-22 Osprey and lastly the F-22 Raptor.

The aircraft was a hybrid of the three, the craft could reach speeds of over 2400 km/h or around Mach 3, and its four engines easily achieved this.

The craft held two twenty-five millimeter cannons running alongside both sides of the cockpit, it could hold six thousand pound bombs and in a compartment that could pop out from the middle of the craft could hold up to twenty Hellfire missiles, twenty Air to Surface missiles, or twenty Air to Air missiles depending on the mission requirement.

This was an impressive fighter jet requires two pilots to work, similar to the Apache attack helicopter, there is one pilot in the rear who flies the aircraft and another in the front seat who fires the guns. Although both seats can either fly or shoot the aircraft and the cockpits are reinforced so if a missile hits the front cockpit the rear cockpit will be undamaged.

However the pilots need to be of a special requirement.

This jet came from the weaponry side of the company; the science side of the company was tasked to find a way for two pilots to work together closely and to increase the efficiency between the two pilots.

What did they come up with? They came up with a way for two brains to be linked together to work almost as one mind.

In a process called Drifting, two minds are able to connect together through a type of mind meld, which allows the two pilots to share memories, experiences, emotions and instincts.

Through this process the two pilots are connected so they can work together seamlessly to fly the aircraft and to shoots its weapons at the same time, and any maneuver that the pilot has to take, the gunner will know and prepare for this.

The two pilots could not just be any random pilots put together, they would need some sort of connection, be it they are friends, lovers or family.

When the whole process was tested together, the aircraft and the drifting process it gained a large amount of media attention, especially since the details were leaked somehow, what surprised the media and public even more was who the test pilots for this idea would be.

Weiss Schnee at the time of this development was 18 at this team, and had already been at an Air Force academy in the United States for two years, learning everything she could about the different types of helicopters and fighter jets, before spending a final year learning about the type she wanted to fly.

At the same time a girl called Ruby Rose was doing this same process, and was roommate and secret girlfriend to Weiss Schnee, they had started dating about two terms after they started at the academy although due to regulations they could not be overly affectionate in public around the academy.

After spending two years deciding the two girls had finally decided what sort of aircraft they wanted to fly, for Weiss she had set her eyes on the most advance fighter jet to date, the F-22 Raptor.

For Ruby it was the AH-64 Apache, preferring the weapons to the speed for a change, as well as having been trained for Infantry fighting as well, meant she had a large respect for the Apache and it's performance in close air support roles.

This all changed when Weiss' father asked her to test his new fighter jet and neurological linking, but Weiss being the stubborn and mistrusting person she is didn't want some random person in her head, which prompted Weiss telling her father about Ruby.

Ruby didn't know about this and when Mr. Schnee appeared at the door to her and Weiss' shared room at the academy resulted in her being caught off guard, but after making the man know she loved Weiss, he reluctantly agreed to them dating and also for Ruby to be the partner of Weiss.

Both Ruby and Weiss finished up learning what they needed to, for Weiss it was to pilot advance fast jets and for Ruby she became a Weapons Officer for the Apache helicopter, trained in most weapons that came with the helicopter and also she spread her knowledge to every known type of weapon a helicopter or fighter jet could carry.

Once the two did this, the new aircraft was ready to test and they went to test out the 'Drift' and the aircraft.

To say it went off without a problem would be a lie; it took a number of attempts for the two women to get used to feeling and hearing each other in a way unfamiliar to everyone on the planet.

Once the process was refined it was easier and more effortless to perform once the pilots had gone through it enough.

Within three months all the testing was complete and SSWC had gotten a government contract by the DOD to make a squadron of these aircrafts and the facilities to maintain and operate the craft as well.

Once this information came to public knowledge, there was an arms race between Russia and America, as the Russians said that the Americans were preparing for a war.

Then out of the blue at the start of the year 2018, just as the first squadron of the new advance fighters entered service the Russians launched a surprise attack not only against the United States, but a number of allied countries in Europe.

Within two years of the war starting Russia had taken over most of mainland Europe, with only small parts of Italy still resisting and the United Kingdom untouched but fighting an air war, China and Japan were fighting back alongside the United Nations, which became the main united force opposing the Russians.

SSWC was contracted to make more fighters, but this was a slow process and they were limited to certain airfields, however this changed when they were able to create mobile Heli-carriers, which could support the fighters.

Ruby and Weiss however, alongside a number of pairs, including Ruby's half sister were all apart of the advance fighter jet force, the fighter itself earned a name for itself after multiply missions, the media had named the craft, Wraith and it stuck with the pilots and that was what the official name of the craft, however each craft had a unique name.

Ruby and Weiss, the first pilots of the Wraith fighter jet, and within a year of war became the most decorated pilots and well-known pilots out of the force. Also within a year of flying and 'drifting' with each other they married, as the drift was able to show them their true emotions and how they feel about each other.

Now with the history lesson done, let's get back to the present.

Ruby and Weiss were sprinting along the hallways of the USS Beacon, the first Heli-carrier to be put into service. They were sprinting towards the hanger bay and towards their aircraft.

The alarm that awoke them was to tell them they had a scramble, meaning that a hostile radar contact has been found and because Ruby and Weiss alongside Yang and Blake were on the response team rotation, meaning they could be called out at any time.

Reaching a room filed with technicians preparing armor pieces to attach to the pilots entering the room.

Yang and Blake would be doing the same thing in a similar looking room on the other side of the hanger.

Entering the room the two women stood in the middle of the room allowing the technicians to start attaching pieces of armor onto their suits.

The armor is to provide protection against the environments they could be flying through or even land in.

Once the armor and helmets were on, Ruby and Weiss picked up their weapons they would carry with them.

A service issue M1911 pistol was strapped onto their left leg; both girls had a personalized pistol, wedding gifts from some of their friends from the academy.

Ruby's was a dark red pistol with the Schnee snowflake symbol etched into its handle; Weiss' was similar however it was white in color and Ruby's Rose symbol etched into the handle.

Above the pistol both girls strapped a Katana above their pistol. The Katana was an idea that Ruby had for all Wraith pilots to have and train in; it was also a way for pilots to be paired together.

To duel with Katana, there needs to be a trust in the skill of the other person but also a special talent to duel with a partner and not injure them. When dueling partners are in tune with each other, that they can match each other's moves perfectly without the drift to tell them what they are going to try.

This was twofold as the sword provided pilots with a close range weapon to use in ground combat, although rare as it is.

Walking towards their aircraft, Weiss spoke Ruby, "I've got front seat, sweetie."

A side effect of the drift was the skills of the pilots could be transferred, which meant that Ruby could fly the jet thanks to drifting with Weiss and vice visa.

"But you have the front seat last time." Ruby pouted at her wife, they took turns swapping seats whenever they went out on a mission.

Weiss just smirked in reply, and kissed Ruby and whispered in her ear, a promise for what she would do in return when they got back.

Blushing Ruby just nodded her head and the two women climbed into their aircraft into the correct seats.

As soon as Ruby sat down in the rear seat and Weiss in the front, Ruby started the process for starting the engines of the aircraft.

Going through all the checks on the craft, Weiss checked weapons and listened out for the strike package.

"Strike package Delta loaded, check?" The lead weapon engineer spoke into the aircrafts com.

Weiss looked at her display and responded, "Strike package Delta loaded and checked."

The aircraft could be equipped for a number of roles, each a different strike package.

Strike package Alpha held twenty hellfire missiles, which are used for close ground support that the fighter is able to provide.

Strike package Bravo held twenty air to air missiles, this was used when the fighter was going to fight other aircraft and would be the normal package for the fighter.

Strike package Charlie had air to surface missiles, which held a large payload then the hellfire's so they could be used in taking out large targets.

Strike package Delta was a mix of all three, with a focus on air to air missiles. There was a mix of five hellfire missiles, five larger air to surface missiles and ten air to air missiles, allowing the fighter to be ready for any sort of mission. This package was mostly used for the alert teams to allow them armed and ready for anything.

Ruby started the first stage of ignition for the engine, and once that was done she heard Glynda Goodwitch's familiar voice came into their ears.

"Prepare for Neural Handshake."

Ruby and Weiss both stopped what they were doing, and prepared to be in each other's mind, focusing on keeping their own clear.

Hearing the countdown, once it reached zero both Ruby and Weiss felt a sense of weightlessness before they started going through each other's mind.

Ruby and Weiss, so use to drifting easily went through each other's minds, already knowing everything that was there, within thirty seconds they had completed and were linked together.

Glynda spoke with Ozpin who was standing behind her, "Drift holding at 100 percent, they're ready for second phase of launch."

Ozpin nodded, activating the com system, "Wraith One, you are cleared to move into launch tube."

Ruby started to prepare for second phase as the engineers outside moved the fighter onto the elevator to take them into the launch tube.

Two minutes put Ruby and Weiss into a long tube, running the whole length of the ship; they could just about see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Ozpin's voice came over the intercom again, as data starting being sent to the craft about their mission.

"We have had one enemy contact that Wraith One-Two will be sent for, you mission is to find out about an unknown contact detected twenty miles off the coast of Japan."

Everything that Ozpin said, plus more information about location of the contact streamed into their heads and on their heads up displays from their helmets.

Once that was done, both women strapped the oxygen masks onto their lower half of their faces.

"Permission to launch?" Ruby asked as she was increasing the power towards the engines as she heard the familiar whine of the railgun launch tube they were in.

"Granted." Ozpin spoke through the com piece.

Ruby increased the speed further to reach towards maximum speed while Glynda spoke one last time.

"Control of railgun launch handed over."

"I have control, Wraith One launching." Without needing to speak, Weiss felt Ruby say in her mind about the parking brake.

Once the brake was released nothing was holding the ship from moving, and accelerating forward as the clamp holding the front wheel in position started to shoot forward, bring the aircraft with it.

Both women were pulled into their seats at the force as the combined force of the engines and railgun firing them moved together to launch the craft at high speeds.

Exiting the tube they were shot off heading towards the open sea next to Japan, heading towards the contact.

Ruby and Weiss didn't speak as they went through checks and the process of flying and arming weapons, because they were in each other's heads so they didn't need to speak.

Within three minutes they had arrived at the location of the contact and Ruby was bring the craft around to check out the area, trying to find anything.

"There's nothing here, at all." Weiss spoke for the first time since they left the heli-carrier.

Ruby just hummed in response as she looked around trying to see if there was anything.

"Contact, heavy enemy fighter force, need assistance." Yang's voice broke them out of their search.

Ruby already knew that Weiss was thinking the same as her, as they pulled out of their search area and started heading towards her sister's location.

"Command, Wraith One responding to call from Wraith One-Two." Ruby told her commander, as they shot off towards her sister.

Weiss at the same time was speaking to Yang, "Wraith One-Two, Wraith One inbound in one minute."

"Copy that Wraith One." Yang had responded back to them acknowledging them.

As they were closing the gap, an alarm went off inside the fighter, and large letters appeared inside their HUDs shouting, "MISSILE LOCK"

As soon as the alarm went off, training kicked in as Ruby started to fire off countermeasures in the shape of flares being shot out the underside of the aircraft trying to distract the missile.

While that was happening however Ruby started to pull back on the controls to try and dodge the missile as well, in case the countermeasures didn't work.

The next event happened in an instant but to Ruby it happened in slow motion.

The missile they were trying to evade hit the front, underside of the aircraft, normally the armor would hold against missiles, being reinforced to protect the pilot.

However this missile seemed built to counter that, as two explosions hit the underside breaching the armor and as soon as that happened the missile pieced through the bottom of the front cockpit, and the third and final charge detonated and destroying the whole front cockpit.

The only thing saving Ruby was the fact the missile couldn't breach both cockpits in one go from the armor of the cockpit and design.

The drift allowed Ruby to feel what Weiss was thinking and feeling as she died, and her last thoughts that she had.

Ruby screamed out in pain feeling her wife die, almost losing control of the aircraft in the process.

Burying the pain as she felt anger overtake her, Ruby's HUD displayed the location of the launcher, bringing the craft to bear, Ruby unloaded the two cannons and almost all of the Hellfire missiles she had, effectively destroying the launcher and anything around it.

Back at the command center, Glynda and Ozpin saw everything happen on screen, as they saw Weiss die and then lost contact with Ruby shortly after that happened.

Ruby was able to fly the fighter back to the mainland, and using the Osprey way of landing, Ruby brought the Wraith fighter to land vertically in the middle of a field on the outskirts of a city in Japan.

Climbing out of the craft, limping in pain after feeling Weiss die. Getting to the tree line around the field, Ruby waited for the fighter to be recovered before disappearing into the city, finding somewhere to stay and found a kind man who would take her in.

* * *

><p><span><strong>AN**

**Ok so some things not completely clear and I know that, firstly the date 8th September is important to me so I thought to use it here as well.**

**The aircraft itself, it has the front body of the Apache, but the two cockpits are level with each other instead of one being elevated.**

**The rest if similar in looks to the F-22 Raptor with it being streamlined but has four engines instead of two, and a larger underside so it is able to house the impressive arsenal.**

**Two 25mm cannons as well, would of gone with the 30mm but that thing is massive so yeah.**

**Anyway as you can see the drifting is the same thing as it is in Pacific Rim but I prefer aircraft over giant robots lol.**

**Oh and the Rail gun launcher is something I got from Gundam, but Rail gun technology is something I follow quite closely especially considering the US navy is testing out such a weapon. If you look into Rail guns then you will also see a method in which we are able to launch spacecraft into space through these means.**

**Oh and just for the strike packages:**

**Strike package Alpha held twenty hellfire missiles, which are used for close ground support that the fighter is able to provide.**

**Strike package Bravo held twenty air-to-air missiles, this was used when the fighter was going to fight other aircraft and would be the normal package for the fighter.**

**Strike package Charlie had air to surface missiles, which held a large payload then the hellfire's so they could be used in taking out large targets.**

**Strike package Delta was a mix of all three, with a focus on air-to-air missiles. There was a mix of five hellfire missiles, five larger air-to-surface missiles and ten air-to-air missiles, allowing the fighter to be ready for any sort of mission. This package was mostly used for the alert teams to allow them armed and ready for anything.**


	2. Chapter 2

Wraith Chapter 2

**8th September 2024**

They never recovered the body, Ruby saw it with her own eyes, Weiss' body was disintegrated and even though she wasn't able to tell anyone herself the aircraft's black box told everyone else all they needed to.

After that day, the one hundred strong fleet of Wraith aircraft was slowly but surely destroyed until only one team of pilots were alive, while a number of aircraft remained ready to be used there was a large shortage of pilots who could fly the aircraft, and as such the commander of the Wraith's started to activate everything he could in order to prepare for what was hopefully the final stage of the war.

* * *

><p>"It has been three years since the tragic event, which lead to the death of Weiss Rose-Schnee and the disappearance of Ruby Rose-Schnee. The events that led up to the death of the Schnee heiress was the Wraith fighter that Weiss and her partner Ruby flew, were scrambled to intercept Russian fighter jets where through unknown means the front cockpit of the aircraft was destroyed, after that all we know is that Ruby flew the fighter solo before landing the fighter in an unknown location and when the recovery unit arrived, Miss Rose was no where to be found."<p>

Ruby stopped the video as she watched the news report; she knew what happened that day she had lived through it all, that was why she was here, on a small island not far from Hawaii.

This small island was formed a number of years ago from the hotspot, which made the Hawaiian Islands, the one Ruby was currently was called Patch.

The island was covered in forest and no one lived on the island, at least not anymore. When Ruby was younger she and her mother lived on in the forest, Ruby never knew why they did, but they lived there comfortably and had weekly trips to the main island to get supplies and materials for the next week.

When Ruby was seven though her mother died and she went to live with her uncle on the main island, but left a small memorial on the island for her mother, a year after she disappeared she returned to the island and placed another memorial for her wife, Weiss.

During Ruby's three years of vanishing from the military and the world as a whole, she was living in Japan under a kind old man who took her in after she had landed her Wraith in his field.

Weiss knew a number of different languages and so when Ruby drifted with her she attained this knowledge as well as other things that Weiss knew.

The old man knew who she was and what she did but was kind enough not to say anything about it or to anyone else, which Ruby was thankful for this.

The man happened to be a sword master as well, who used to teach the way of the Katana until he grew too old to teach, this didn't stop him from teaching Ruby when he saw the weapon she had attached to her hip.

For one year Ruby was taught how to use the Katana correctly, and with deadly proficiency and after six months of training the man told Ruby she had nothing left to teach her, however he was able to set up a deal with a sword smith for Ruby to make her own blade.

The next six months was spent learning and making her own sword, the process took a long time as Ruby was not used to everything required to make a blade, but after six months she had made the sword, which she now carries everywhere.

In that one-year time span Ruby also learnt to deal with the pain of losing Weiss and dealing with the memories of her wife's death.

After a year, she thanked the man who took her in and left heading back to her home Patch, she was able to get a fisherman to bring her some supplies from the mainland for her, which meant she had no contact with anyone else.

She made sure to keep in the loop of what was going on in the world, especially with the war, which was in a stalemate currently, as neither side wanted to do a large scale attack resulting in small engagements.

Ruby's appearance had changed, as well over the three years, she was much thinner for starters, eating food only once or twice a week. Her hair was grown out as well, reaching between her shoulder blades, and she had dyed the tips of her hair as well, they were no longer red on the edge but were white to remember Weiss with.

Alongside her physical appearance changing, she wore loose clothing as well, black jeans and a red hoodie all baggy to hide how thin she was to people.

She was also much colder, her face not revealing any emotions in front of other people and she talked less and less with each day, having lived on the island for a number of months now she would speak once a month when she would be getting supplies from the fishermen who brought them over for her.

When she first arrived on the island however, she had found a small wolf inside her old house, it seemed to be living there but was so small that it was clearly a pup.

Ruby had adopted the wolf and seeing that it was female decided to name her Crystal and had over the two years she had spent on the island was her only constant companion. Following the girl everywhere and even shared Ruby's bed when they slept as well.

Ruby knew something big was going down soon, by one side or the other. This was most likely the reason someone was walking towards her.

Rub was sitting between the two memorials of the important people in her life that had pasted on, a warning growled out by the wolf she had sitting by her side, her head on her lap as Ruby stroked her head, not turning around she called out.

"I'm surprised it took you this long to talk to me Ozpin." Spoke coldly to her former commander.

Ozpin wasn't surprised Ruby knew it was him, or the tone Ruby used having followed what she was doing since she left.

He knew how Ruby changed after the death of Weiss; she became cold and closed off from people and barely speaking unless she needed to.

Ozpin walked closer to Ruby, stopping a few metres away from the woman, "Hello Ruby, I assume you know why I am here?"

"The UN forces are preparing for some sort of large assault to end the war and the stalemate and you are getting every asset you have available to prepare for this." Ruby spoke coldly again, recalling what she read about from looking online.

Ozpin wasn't surprised as he moved closer to Ruby, "Partly true, what hasn't been told to the media and thus the public is that we have very few trained Wraith pilots, only one pair is completely trained and we have a further five pairs needing to be trained, however the only ones who can train them, are not available." Ozpin stated calmly.

Ruby knew what pair he meant, it was her half sister Yang and her girlfriend Blake, and she knew they were still alive because she had been keeping track of them.

"You want me to come back and train them." Ruby stated, easily guessing what Ozpin wanted, but she also knew what Ozpin was likely to try and do.

"Yes, I would like you to come and train the new recruits, we can keep your identity a secret alongside provide you a place on base to stay and you can chose how you teach the students."

"Fine." Ruby knew Ozpin wouldn't take no for an answer and would keep trying to get her to help so she just as well agree now.

"However, if I am to return I want to be in the loop about what is going on, and I want to know what the pilots need to be doing in the upcoming attack and I want to be in on the planning for the attack when concerning the role of the Wraith's." Ruby listed out her demands for taking this position, knowing Ozpin would try and get her to fly as well, so she wanted to be in the know.

Ozpin just nodded his head, "That is an acceptable deal them. The trainee's start in two days, be at the new base in a day to get settled, I take it you know where it is?"

Ruby nodded her head in response, from that Ozpin took his leave going back the same way he got onto the island.

* * *

><p><span><strong>Two days later.<strong>

The base was located on the Hawaiian island of Kahoolawe, once the war started the US air force took over control of the island for use as a safe and secure area to train pilots for the Wraith fighter jets.

A large amount of the base was underground in secure areas, which includes the hanger bay and launch tubes for the fighters to be deployed from.

Inside the facility are a number of rooms for people to stay in; there was one level for the recruits alone to use.

This level contained a large gym with enough equipment for a platoon to use, alongside a large room where pilots can spar safely with swords.

There are ten rooms for the trainees and instructors to sleep in with two people to a room so pilots can be together with their partners.

There was also a classroom for the trainees to be taught; also inside the room were simulators for the Wraith fighters where trainees could practice and learn the controls of the advance fighter.

Currently inside the classroom were eleven people sitting, all facing towards a big desk at the front of the room with a big white board resting on the wall behind it.

Ruby walked into the room, dressed in black jeans and a red hoddie, her hair was loose reaching to the middle of her shoulders, the red tips she used to have on them was changed to white, and her wolf walking with her at her feet which got some shocked gasps from the students in the room.

Ruby glanced at the people sitting in her class, most of them were 18 years old, with some being a little older although none of them had flown a Wraith before and none of them had combat experience.

Ruby's face remained a mask but she was frowning inside as she counted the number of students she had, eleven? She was told five pairs, which meant ten students. This must be a part of Ozpin's plan.

The students all stopped what they were doing and talking about when Ruby walked in, they weren't told anything about their instructor or who they were, but they all expected an instructor from an academy, not a Wraith pilot.

How did they know she was a pilot? Simple the weapons she carried with her. The pistol and Katana gave Ruby away that she was a pilot, her Katana had a very noticeable white handle, and what the students couldn't see was the engraving on the handle of the sword, if they did it would tell them who their instructor is.

Ruby went to the desk, spotting the large books sitting on top picking them all up she started to hand them out to the students, before returning to the front and leaning against the desk.

"I will be your instructor, my name is not important because you will refer to me as Instructor is that understood?"

Hearing a chorus of 'Yes Instructor' Ruby carried on.

"In front of you is a book detailing everything about the Wraith, you will read this and learn everything there is to do with the fighter, that is what you will be doing in these classroom lessons before anything else, if you have any questions about the Wraith I am here to answer what the book does not, now any questions?" Ruby stated coldly to her class.

Most of the students shook their heads, however a large man sitting at the back, raised his hand asking, "When are we going to fly the Wraith?"

Ruby looked at the man, "Mr. Winchester, you will fly the Wraith when I say you are ready to. Now if there are no more questions you have some reading to do."

Another student spoke up after Cardin did asking, "What's with the dog?"

Ruby turned to the student and saw it was a blonde haired boy, "Mr Arc, that is Crystal my pet wolf, do no worry she doesn't bite, much." This didn't do anything to calm the man, but Ruby didn't really care, as she knew Crystal would be ok with them.

Seeing no more questions Ruby got them to start their own work while she went to her desk.

Ruby sat down behind her desk, putting her feet up as she opened up some documents on her tablet. Crystal had started to walk around the room, happily exploring the new room before coming back to Ruby's side to jump up onto the table and sit down next to Ruby's feet.

Ruby was reading up on who was in her class, the man she spoke to was called Cardin Winchester, he had a number of reports of bullying other students in school, however no punishment was issued to him and it seemed the other men sitting around him were in the same school and apart of the same group.

Ruby would have to sort them out, and it seemed they had some potential pairings amongst them as well.

The next set of people on her list after that were two more men and two girls, Jaune Arc was a blonde eighteen year old, who looked quite young but she looked over his record, which held nothing very interesting making her slightly confused about why he was here but discarded that thought for the moment.

The other male, Lie Ren or just Ren, was a quiet young man who was best friends with one of the girls Nora Valkyrie, who was the opposite of Ren, which made for an odd pairing but she didn't question it as it seemed to work.

Pyrrha Nikos was a tall woman, and her records showed she was very smart with a number of scholarship opportunities but chose to go to an air force academy and excelled in fighter pilot training, she was clearly a very good choice for this programme, and she saw Pyrrha helping the kid, Jaune in understanding a number of things. At least she helped out with people struggling; they could make a good pair Ruby thought.

Ruby turned to the odd one out in her class Neopolitan was a short girl, shorter then Weiss, she was twenty-one years old and held a weird colour hair, brown, pink and white. The girl went by the name Neo and she was clearly very good at flying as her records showed she was trained for a number of years for different jets but had never flown any in combat, which struck Ruby as being odd.

Ruby read that the girl had a bad history and thus had trust issues with people and had shown reluctance in the idea of drifting with someone but wasn't opposed to learning about the Wraith fighter.

Ruby was thinking how similar the two were, and worked out why she was asked to train these recruits.

The rest of the class went by quietly, the students studying the aircraft and Ruby studying the students.

After three hours Ruby released the class to get some lunch while she skipped the meal and went to the gym to prepare for the afternoon classes.

After an hour her class filtered into the gym, in PT clothes they gathered around Ruby in the large sparring area.

"You will spend a number of hours in here training, I want all of you in here at six am every day to train for two hours, before breakfast and first lesson after that we spend three hours here in the afternoon, you can work on whichever skill you want to during this time, there is a shooting range here as well and if you want to enter and train in there you come and get me, otherwise you can do what you want in here."

Ruby stated all the information they needed to know, and allowed them to move around the gym.

Most of them went to the treadmills or weights to train, no one wanted to go to the range currently however Ruby had a couple of people stay behind in the sparring room and using wooden swords were training with each other.

Ruby was walking around watching her students train, sometimes giving advice on what to do or in the case of sword practice, adjustments to the stance or form.

Crystal herself was happily walking around the new room, sniffing around the floor, before sticking by Ruby's side as she went around giving advice.

Ruby was in the process of doing this for Jaune and Pyrrha when Neo walked up behind her asking, "Instructor would you be able to duel with me?" Neo spoke softly and Ruby almost didn't catch what was said.

Ruby turned from what she was doing to look at the shorter girl, she was holding two wooden practice swords, her face with a questioning look.

"Alright then." Ruby replied back, walking over to a chair in the room, removing her sword and placing it carefully onto the chair.

Once she had placed her sword down she took the wooden sword from Neo, holding it down by her side while she waited for Neo to start.

Both women bowed to each other before raising their swords up, ready to fight.

As they fought, it was clear who was the more advance swordswoman was, however Ruby wasn't trying to beat her opponent but to help her improve so Ruby wasn't taking advantage of any openings Neo had but instead told her of them to help her improve.

The two women spent a half hour duelling before Ruby stopped, seeing Neo exhausted from the fight, handing her a towel and a bottle of water to help her to cool down.

Ruby looked around and saw her class had been watching the duel; normally she would be annoyed but thought better of it. It was the first day and they would have learnt something while watching the duel at least.

"Go back to what you were doing, shows over." Ruby spoke coldly to her class.

The class spent the next couple of hours training until Ruby dismissed them off to dinner. Ruby skipped dinner and went into her room to spend time alone for the rest of the evening.

The students once finished with dinner had headed for the recreational room to either relax or study the book they were given earlier in the day.

A large man entering the room interrupted the students and what they were up to, asking in a stern, harsh voice "Where is your instructor?"

The students looked up scared at the man, however some of the older ones recognised who this man was, Mr. Schnee the owner and head of Schnee Weapons and Science cooperation.

Neo recovered the fastest speaking up, "She's in her room sir, I can show you where that is if you wish." Speaking respectfully to the creator of the fighter jets they all want to fly.

Mr. Schnee nodded his head, allowing Neo to lead him to their instructor's room.

Once they arrived outside the large man thanked Neo, before knocking on the door, waiting for a response.

Neo had started walking off when the door was opened showing their instructor, who as she worked out who was in front of her, paled and looked shocked but let him into the room.

Once Neo returned to the recreational room she was bombarded with questions, asking her what Mr. Schnee wanted with their instructor, however Neo didn't have any answers for them and keeping to herself how their instructor looked when she saw the man.

Ruby opened her door, annoyed at the fact someone was knocking on her door, calming Crystal down and letting her sit on Ruby's bed, she opened the door and paled recognising the large man in front of her.

Stepping to the side Ruby letting Mr. Schnee into her room, and after a few minutes of silence, Ruby spoke up, "Would you like anything to drink sir?"

"I told you before Ruby to call me John, I'm assuming you know why I am here?" His voice was softer then before, the harsh edges disappearing from it.

Ruby nodded her head, speaking in a soft voice, "It's because of Weiss."

Mr. Schnee, John nodded his head, "Yes it is, when she died I blamed you for her death, however once we looked at the black box showing the combat record, we understood what happened and found that you did what you could to protect the fighter and my daughter."

Ruby just nodded, not knowing what to say as tears started to gather in her eyes at John's words.

Carrying on, John continued "We don't blame you for her death, and we understand what happened that day, we tried to look for you to tell you but you had disappeared, I'm not sure how Ozpin was even able to find you."

Ruby nodded again, "I didn't want to be found, I was linked with Weiss when she died and it wasn't nice and almost broke me, if it wasn't for the person who took me in then I doubt I would have been able to handle it all."

"I understand Ruby, when we designed the technology we didn't take into account what would happen if one dies during a drift, we know now and have been able to properly help anyone who experiences it. However I wanted to come here to tell you not to blame yourself, and even though Weiss is gone you can always contact us and we will happily help you out. You still have family in us and we want you to be happy and want you to find someone else and not be alone." John's tone was soft and comforting to Ruby.

Ruby wasn't able to stop the tears from falling down her face and she didn't fight back when John hugged her either, letting her cry in sadness and happiness.

Half an hour later and much talking between the two allowed them to learn what had happened in the two years since Weiss' death and Ruby's disappearance, and also reassurance that Ruby's identity would be kept secret unless she wanted to tell people.

Mr. Schnee left Ruby's room to head back to the mainland to return back to his family, but not before giving Ruby contact information and a card for her own bank account informing her that since she never left the military she still had them paying them, and also in Weiss' will she was left a large sum of money by her wife, which Mr. Schnee was more then happy to increase as well.

Ruby was not that bothered by money, she never needed much in life so money never normally concerned her.

Once Mr. Schnee had gone, Ruby checked on her students making sure they were in their rooms ready for lights out, once that was done Ruby tried to sleep but was woken up by a nightmare, causing her to go to the gym to work out throughout the night.

* * *

><p>AN

So introduced the recruits and the characters coming into play, no idea how long this story will be, I've got another chapter halfway done and a couple other idea's that I want to do.

Oh and I'm in college so I haven't gone over it today, but I did a couple days ago. Also if there is anything saying about Ruby being gone for two years, its actually three I just couldn't count when I was writing this out.

Anyway that's it, don't expect any updates for a while as its my birthday and I have the best dad ever in what he's done for me. ^_^

Also I would like to thank BloodAlice16 for the wolves name. ^_^


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

_**5 years ago, Fall of France**_

_Germany was invaded and conquered within a week, Russian forces used shock and awe to overwhelm German forces and there was no time for any other country to organise a response force to help them._

_Currently the First Wraith Squadron, which was made up of twenty out of the forty fighters, was stationed around France, deployed via a heli-carrier named USS Beacon. _

_Currently Wraith One, with pilots Ruby and Weiss Rose-Schnee, Ruby was piloting while Weiss was taking the front seat controlling the weapons when the call came through. _

"_All stations Russian ground forces have crossed the border into Paris, I repeat all stations France is being invaded."_

_Weiss was immediately onto the radio, while Ruby was pulling the aircraft around._

"_Command this is Wraith One, moving to border, three minutes out, wait Ruby what are you?"_

_The radio fizzled and someone shouting in the background was heard when Ruby called back, "Command one minute out."_

_Ruby had stopped the engine and used the thrusters to turn the aircraft around pointed towards the border, once she was pointed in the right direction, and as she reached just above the rooftop line, she powered up the engines to maximum thrust._

_A loud boom was heard as the engine reignited, then a second even louder boom echoed across the city, those houses closest to the epicentre all had the windows exploded inwards as Ruby went supersonic barely ten metres above the houses._

_True to her word Ruby brought her and Weiss to the border in just under a minute, pushing the engines to maximum._

_When they arrived to the border they saw French forces trying and failing to stop Russian tanks supported by infantry and they were walking over an opposition in front of them._

_Without speaking Ruby brought the aircraft in a steep angle, heading towards the ground as Weiss started to open up with the cannons and dropping a bomb on one of the larger clusters of forces._

_While this was happening Ruby was relaying the information back to the carrier, which was above the English Channel, not being aloud to fly over land in case something happened._

"_Command deploy Wraith wings two through to twenty, I repeat deploy all wings and get the reserves heading towards France now!" _

"_Copy Wraith One, deploying now."_

_Ruby didn't bother to reply and started to focus on flying the aircraft and doing attack runs in order to try and help French forces to push back the Russians._

_**A day and a half later.**_

_Ruby had just brought the aircraft onto the runway at a military airstrip just outside of Paris, the last one left standing outside of the city._

_Ruby was taxiing the aircraft to one of the fuel trucks waiting just off the runway to refuel them. As soon as they arrived next to it, where they allowed themselves a moment to relax after thirty-six hours of sitting in the cockpit._

_All Wraith pilots and a large amount of military strength were fighting to push the Russians back, but no matter how many they killed it didn't stop the from moving forward._

_Currently they were around five miles outside of Paris, and still moving, which made everyone worried when they make it to the city, as air support would be hard pressed to attack targets._

_Ruby and Weiss took a breather while the engineers loaded up the aircraft with fuel and more ammo so they could continue fighting, they had AA tanks alongside them for the Russian fighter jets that were flying around and close by._

_What none of them expected quite yet was the sound of tanks and gunfire by the perimeter of the base. _

_Ruby jolted awake as she heard the calls from the control tower, "Wraith One, launch now enemy forces at the perimeter, we don't know how long we can hold them." A voice shouted at Ruby in a heavily accented French voice._

_Ruby acted immediately, having not completely shut the engines down so they could get a quick escape she checked behind her to see if there was anyone there._

_Seeing no one, Ruby flared the engines and putting more thrust into them so she could start moving forward, they were lucky the refuelling was done and rearming was pretty much finished, but they didn't have any time to spare._

_Moving forward quickly, the AA tanks were following Ruby as far as they could as they reached the runway, pushing the engines to full power she started to move along the runway as enemy fighter jets started to try and attack her but were shot down by the AA tanks._

_Pulling up as the runway was starting to run out, Ruby pulled up and brought the landing gear up; as they rose in altitude they saw the large Russian forces moving to the base and then onto the city._

_**Three days after Russian invasion, above Paris.**_

_Three days, that's all it took before France fell to the Russian forces. The fighting inside the capital city was fierce but in the end the Russians won._

_A tank round hit the Eiffel tower, on purpose or by accident, either way it hit one of the supporting legs and collapsed the landmark. It didn't take much longer after that for the French government to surrender to avoid any more landmarks being destroyed._

_Ruby and Weiss were both in the air above Paris where they were the first to hear the transmission, which Ruby then passed on to Command, however what she didn't know was that Command had broadcasted her message to the world._

"_Command, this is Wraith One Paris has fallen, I repeat Paris has fallen." Ruby took a breath as she tried to think of a way to say it._

"_Command, French officials have surrendered, I repeat France has fallen to Russian forces."_

_Ruby didn't hear anything back from Command; so using her authority ordered, "All Wraith's return to base, we've done all we can." Ruby fought to keep the sadness out of her voice, but ultimately it failed and she couldn't hide it. _

_When Ruby finally landed the aircraft onto the USS Beacon, they were the last pilots to return and she saw in the hanger bay a large amount of medical stuff around all the fighters._

_They were carting off all the pilots of the Wraith's, having all passed out from exhaustion, most if not all the pilots had been fighting for at least seventy-two hours straight, with the only breaks when they were being rearmed and refuelled._

_Somehow Ruby and Weiss were still awake and able to climb out themselves, even though the only food they'd had in the last three days were energy bars._

_As soon as they climbed out of the aircraft they were assaulted by a small group of medics, checking them over, only to be waved away by the two girls._

_Once they got out of the way of the medics they saw Glynda Goodwitch was waiting for them, without words they followed the woman through a number of decks until they entered a room with General Ozpin standing inside._

"_Hello Captain's Rose-Schnee, I have another mission for you and the reserve flights who have just arrived."_

_Both women stood still and at attention while they waited to hear their orders._

"_As you know France has fallen, and as such we have started to organise a Reaper flight, as normal with countries that have fallen to the Russians."_

_Both girls knew of the Reaper flight, it was a large formation of bombers and escort craft. The purpose of this formation was to destroy anything that could be used by enemy forces and sometimes it would even hit large groups of enemy forces, be it enemy camps or bases of operations._

_Continuing, Ozpin outlined the targets of the operation, "I want you Ruby to lead the operation, however I also have a special mission for your aircraft."_

_The man turned to Glynda, nodding his head, which prompted her to leave the room and just stand outside the room, guarding the entrance so no one, would come in. _

"_Now lets get down to it." _

_**Two hours later.**_

_Ruby and Weiss had a small rest but were quickly back inside the hanger bay, getting ready for the next mission. Reaper flight._

_While by their aircraft, the lead engineer was speaking with the two pilots and about the strike package they would need._

"_So Strike pack Delta correct? Same as all other fighters." The engineer asked._

_Ruby shook her head, "No we need strike package Omega loaded." The silence after Ruby's words was deafening, they had only heard of the package once, and even then it was only because of the special loading requirements._

_The lead engineer recovered first, "Ma'am I'll need one of you to come with me in order to authorise release of materials." _

_Nodding Weiss was the one who went with the man, while Ruby had her eyes on a reporter speaking into a camera on the other side of the hanger bay, camera pointed direct at Ruby and her aircraft. _

_Walking over to the reporter who seemed to be in the middle of a live broadcast, not like Ruby cared. _

_She walked up speaking loud enough, "Who gave you permission to record inside the hanger?"_

_The reporter was shocked but recovered quickly, trying to turn the conversation around, "Ah Captain Rose-Schnee, are you able to tell us anything about the fall of France?"_

_Ruby was stone faced speaking calmly, "At this time all I can say is that France has fallen to Russian forces, now I will ask again why are you recording in the hanger?"_

_The reporter dodged the question again, "Earlier we saw pilots being carted off on stretchers as they collapsed inside the cockpits of their craft, but both you and your wife was fine when they climbed out, were you not fighting as long as other pilots?" The reporter accused Ruby, as the camera moved to get her reaction._

_This made Ruby angry but was good to not show it, and looked at the reporters badge to get her name, "Miss Free I stay say this once, me and my wife were the first pilots to response to the Russian forces, we got from Paris to the border in under a minute and have been awake for over ninety-two hours, and at least ninety of those has been inside that cockpit leading the air defences, if you are implying that me and Captain Rose-Schnee were not fighting to our best ability then I suggest you turn around and leave this ship at once."_

_Taking a breath Ruby continued, "As for the state of the other pilots they fought to the point of exhaustion, not being used to that style of fighting and as such collapsed and are currently recovering in the med-bay. Now as I said, why are you recording inside the hanger?"_

_This time Ruby moved her hands from her chest to her pistol and sword, hanging at her waist. _

_The reporter saw this and just as she was about to explain what they had been allowed to do, they spotted Weiss and a group of engineers bringing in a crate of bombs, however the radiation symbol littered all over the crate drew the reporter and camera mans attention to the box._

_Ruby seeing this stepped in the way, pushing the camera down, "Stop recording now!" She demanded of the two people, who from the tone of voice froze and the cameraman had enough sense to stop the camera._

_Once Ruby saw the camera stop she called over some security, "Detain these two until I get back." The two guards took the media team away, to the cellblock under Ruby's orders._

_Ruby got back and started to help the engineers load up the aircraft, strike package Omega was simple; it was thirty-five thousand pound bombs and five nuclear warheads. _

_The warheads had a large explosive yield but the radiation from the explosion would dissipate quickly, leaving no lasting radiation. _

_The engineers loaded the missiles onto the aircraft and loaded up a full amount of 25mm bullets for the main guns._

"_I've got front seat." Ruby told her wife, who didn't disagree with her both girls knew that Ruby was the better gunner._

_Both girls climbed into the aircraft where they were being taken to the launch platform in order to deploy, they had two large fuel canisters on the wings to allow them to fly longer then normal._

_Once they'd launched alongside the massive fleet of bombers and escort craft, and for the next day the massive fleet of aircraft bombed key installations around France, be it army bases, power plants or even water plants. _

_As the main force was nearing the end of its bombing, Ruby and Weiss broke away from the main force heading towards the border between France and Germany. _

_As they got into range along the border, there targets were two main encampments, which held the main force of the Russian army, and also a nuclear power planet near the border._

_As they got into range of the two bases, Ruby set up the controls to fire three of the five nuclear warheads to target the main Russian bases, while the last two were set to hit the nuclear power plant._

_Before she fired the warheads however Ruby spoke to Weiss but also on all frequencies so everyone could hear her, "May the Gods and Goddess' above have mercy on our souls." Ruby pressed the button, which fired the five nuclear warheads towards the Russians._

**Present time.**

Ruby woke up in a cold sweat, just as she fired the nuclear warheads. Breathing hard and fast she recovered from her dream.

It was when she fought defending France when it was invaded, she had tried as hard as she could, all of them did but that didn't stop the media attacking her about the fall of the country, it didn't help matters when they found out about the nuclear weapons being used even though they didn't leave any lasting radiation.

Climbing out of bed she gently moved the sleeping Crystal to the side as she dressed and went to the gym to work out her dream.

This process happened over the next week, Ruby would try to sleep but it would ultimately end up in a nightmare and bring Ruby out of her dream, only allowing her an hour or two of sleep a night.

Ruby had eaten one small meal for the whole week, which would be barely enough for someone to function however Ruby did function on so little food.

At the end of the week Ruby decided to do something special for her students, she was able to get the clearance to take her eleven students out for an hour-long flight in a Wraith fighter.

Ruby was piloting the whole time, giving them all an experience of the actual craft outside of simulations, and although the craft was armed and the students were sitting in the front seat, they had no control of the craft unless Ruby allowed them to. Which she didn't allow them.

Ruby had just spent the last ten hours flying with each of her students, the last two she had, Coco and Velvet were the most enjoyable as they asked a couple questions, but they talked about random things. Ruby wishing that times were slightly different and she could easily be friends with them, having those two being the oldest amongst the students.

Coco was particularly fun to talk to as she had asked about the ascetics of the aircraft, and also if they were able to do their own paint schemes for the aircraft, which they were.

The last person Ruby was taking out was Neo and they met in the hanger bay while the crew were checking over the fighter after having ten hours of flight time.

Ruby wasn't dressed in normal flight gear like Neo, she was dressed in her jeans and hoodie, which was odd for someone flying but Neo didn't question her or anyone else for that matter.

Neo climbed into the front cockpit as Ruby was climbing into the rear, talking with the lead engineer as she did.

"Strike package Delta loaded as per normal ma'am."

"Thanks Chief, have the craft brought round for launch."

Ruby went through starting the aircraft and sorting out launch talking it all through with Neo making sure she understood what she was doing and why.

Once she had taken off Ruby brought the fighter out to open sea to perform a normal of different manoeuvres to display the crafts ability and how easy it was to handle.

Halfway through the hour-long session, the radio came up with an emergency warning.

"All aircraft near Hawaii sector 1 through 4, land immediately we have a red alert on all flights."

Ruby hearing the alert, knew what it meant straight away and she brought the craft around while changing frequency on her radio.

"Widow command, Wraith One-Three I'm on a training flight in the area, requesting update on situation, over." Ruby asked straight away.

"Wraith One-Three we have three enemy contacts confirmed as SU-34's, we have four Raptor deploying from the mainland to intercept."

"Widow Command, I am armed and able to intercept faster than the Raptors, over."

Ruby had already started to input the time it would take for her to intercept the fighters.

"Wraith One-Three, I'm not in a position to authorise your deployment."

Neo throughout this was unsure completely what was going on other than her instructor wanted to engage in a fight, piloting a Wraith by herself without drifting.

"Widow Command, I'm Oscar Charlie of Wraith call signs and able to authorise my deployment."

"Wraith One-Three I need authorisation."

"Romeo, Romeo, Echo, Delta, One."

"Authorisation confirmed Wraith One-Three, intercept is yours, oh and we're glad to have you back Captain."

Ruby noticed the tone of the operator, clearly knowing the code and who it belonged to, Ruby wasn't sure if she was happy with that or not.

"Copy Widow Command, have Raptors hold position on the miracle mile off the coast of Hawaii."

"Copy Wraith One-Three, good hunting."

Cutting the call, Ruby started to accelerate the aircraft on the direction of the contact, as she started to arm the weapons.

Neo was worried, speaking up, "Instructor unlock the weapon controls so I can help."

"No, you aren't trained yet, I can handle the load." Ruby's voice while leaving nothing up to debate Neo didn't heed this.

"How can you handle flying and fighting at the same time, and without drifting?"

"I'll explain later in class, now monitor the radar and tell me where they are."

Neo didn't ask anything else, instead focusing on the task she was given by her teacher.

Ruby watched how far out she was, using the time to inform home base what was going on.

"Whiskey base, Wraith One-Three on intercept for three hostile contacts, how copy?"

"Copy Wraith One-Three, we've been informed by Widow Command of the situation." Glynda Goodwitch's familiar voice entered into Ruby's ear, informing her that they already knew.

"Copy Whiskey base, just wanted to tell you."

"Thanks Wraith One-Three, good hunting."

Cutting the radio again, Ruby focused on flying to the contact bringing the craft up to 15,000 feet, an extra 5,000 feet above the Russian planes.

Once they got close, Ruby hailed the fighters, "Inbound Russian fighters, you are entering US airspace, turn around now and you will not be fired upon, continue on your current course and I shall be forced to fire upon you."

Hearing no reply and Neo telling her that nothing changed made Ruby sigh, speaking again but in Russian instead, but this again didn't work, prompting Ruby to get ready to attack.

Bringing the fighter down into a dive towards the three Su-34's, Ruby fired the two twenty-five millimetre cannons either side of the cockpit, destroying the middle Su-34, the other two turned out of the way of the inbound fighter.

Ruby pulled a hand brake looking device, which shut the engines off. Pressing a button on the Collective activated thrusters underneath the craft, which brought the craft into a flip. Before the flip was even over Ruby had pulled the handbrake off activating the main engine again and once the flip was complete Ruby had already brought the fighter up to speed to chase down the last two fighters.

Ruby brought the fighter around; heading in the direction the other two enemy contacts went off to, than a warning started screaming at Ruby.

'Missile lock.'

The craft automatically started to fire off flares, but Ruby fired off a few extra as well while banking hard to the left trying to lose the lock, after a minute of banking and flares another alert popped up.

'Missile defeated'

Sighing in relief, Neo quickly informed Ruby where the fighters were.

Ruby didn't give any verbal response, however she quickly started to chase down the other contact.

Ruby brought the craft in behind the second aircraft, opening up with the two cannons, however the enemy was able to avoid getting hit by these, so Ruby locked on and fired two air to air missiles, which the first one slammed into the engine exploding most of the aircraft, while the second hit the destroyed body of the craft, creating a further explosion.

Once the second aircraft was down, Ruby pulled a tight turn and changing the course of the Wraith again as she hunted for the final enemy aircraft.

The third and final Su-35 flew overhead, giving the two women a view of the weapons it was carrying, it held two large thousand pound bombs, and two weird shaped missiles that Neo couldn't work out what they were.

Ruby however quickly saw what they were, and dived the aircraft, hoping to bring herself up behind the final fighter.

The other pilot saw this and the pilot and Ruby were quickly engaged in a fight of who could hit the other first as the air started to fill with cannon fire.

The Su-35's thirty millimetre cannon managed to land some hits on the Wraith but its heavy armour was able to hold out against the large bullets.

The other craft wasn't so lucky, as the bullets hit the Wraith; Ruby had opened fire with the two twenty-five millimetre cannons, making contact with the Su-35 body and the depleted uranium armour piercing shells ripped apart the body of the Su-35.

Once Ruby saw the final enemy aircraft was destroyed she activated her radio, "Widow Command, Wraith One-Three. Three bandits confirmed destroyed. They held two thousand pound bombs, and two anti-wraith missiles on each aircraft, over."

"Wraith One-Three, copy your last Raptors are going to recon the area, you are clear to RTB, over."

"Copy that Widow Command, signing off."

Ruby brought the Wraith around again and started heading towards home base.

"Whiskey Base, ammo used, three hundred twenty-five mike mike, and two AA missiles."

Glynda's voice came on, "Copy Wraith One-Three, engineers informed of rearming requirements, over."

Ruby didn't reply as she focused on flying the aircraft back safely, although her eyes started feeling heavy as she was flying and she herself felt weak.

As they neared the landing strip for the base, Ruby prepared to land however the air traffic control tower radioed the fighter.

"Wraith One-Three, adjust course you are off the mark for landing."

By this point Ruby was feeling extremely weak and struggled to keep her eyes open as she brought the craft for a bad landing along the airstrip.

Although they didn't crash Ruby brought the craft in hard, causing a massive jolt to go through both pilots inside.

Ruby was able to bring the craft into the elevator area, which brought them to the underground hanger, and as soon as they could get out Ruby climbed out struggling to stand upright before collapsing.

Ruby would of hit the floor if Glynda hadn't come down to talk to Ruby and catch the falling woman.

Neo was in the middle of climbing out the aircraft when she saw her instructor collapse into the arms of Colonel Goodwitch.

Rushing over, Neo saw her instructor had her eyes closed and was asleep, which shocked Neo.

Glynda moved Ruby a little, to make it easier to carry her asking the student, "Help me get her to her room." Glynda commanded Neo.

Neo nodded and helped carry Ruby to her room, where her pet was dancing around their feet as they laid Ruby onto the bed, Glynda looked around the room which caused a wave of sadness to move over her.

Ruby's room was bare which when compared to three years ago where Ruby's room was filled with pictures and made personal, this time there was nothing of her own other than some clothes.

Glynda also saw a bowl in the kitchen that was sitting in the sink, clear that Ruby had only eaten one meal the whole week as none of the other plates had any dirt on them.

Sighing to herself Glynda moved Neo out of the room, "I'll get a doctor down here to look at her, and I'll sort someone to cover for your lessons. Now off you go."

Neo nodded and went back to the common room, where they had heard everything that had happened while on her flight. Upon entering the room she was bombarded for the second time with more questions.

Glynda had gotten the bases doctor to come and check up on Ruby, while she spoke to General Ozpin about the situation who in turn made a few phone calls to call back the only other two pilots left alive.

The doctor had told Glynda that Ruby had barely eaten and as such was quite weak, which meant he had to put an IV drip into her arm to give her back the nutrients she needed.

The doctor also told Glynda that the stress of flying on her own sapped her energy and made her pass out, and so he ordered her to have at least three days bed rest.

Glynda had managed to get someone to cover Ruby's classes, but the two people coming back were not happy about it but when they found out why, well one of them was even more annoyed.

Yang Belladonna, married to Blake Belladonna and stepsister to Ruby Rose-Schnee stormed through the base, everyone moving out of her way or moving the opposite direction to her to avoid her.

When she got to her destination she threw open the door to see her sister laying on her bed, wide awake and her pet wolf sitting next to her.

Crystal however ran away, scared of the new person and ran into the pilot's common room, the first person she came to was Neo, where she jumped up onto the girls lap and curled in a ball.

Neo was shocked by this but recovered quickly and started to stroke the wolf to calm her down.

Yang however didn't stop there and proceeded to shout at Ruby, it started off with the fact she had just disappeared for three years and didn't tell Yang anything, even just a letter saying she was ok.

That wasn't the end of it though, Yang started to shout at her about her health and the fact she had passed out from flying and performing things that a few years before wouldn't have an effect on her.

Throughout all of this Ruby didn't say anything back, she just lay in the bed and allowed her sister to shout at her.

Almost an hour later and Yang was hugging her sister, tears in her eyes that she was finally back and for all intent and purpose was healthy.

Yang left the room allowing her sister to sleep and recover like the doctor ordered her to, heading into the common room she saw Blake speaking with some of the students but it was clear they had heard everything.

Yang's eyes fell onto the wolf that was in Neo's lap, remembering that it was the same one that was in Ruby's room before it run away.

Yang gestured to the girl to come into the corridor with her, and Neo followed holding Crystal in her arms as the small wolf slept.

"Who are you?" Yang asked softly, keeping her voice down so the others couldn't hear.

"Cadet Neo, ma'am." Neo answered formally, recognising one of two surviving Wraith pilots.

Yang waved Neo off, "Drop that formal shit, I hate the stuff. Anyway guessing by the way you're holding um." Yang waved her arm at the wolf, not knowing her name.

"Crystal, ma' ah sorry Miss Belladonna." Neo corrected quickly.

"Ah don't worry just call me Yang, anyway judging by the fact I saw Crystal with Ruby earlier I'll assume she's Ruby's correct?" Yang asked the girl.

Neo stood shocked a minute, knowing the name Ruby as one of the first pilots of the Wraith and judging by what Yang was talking about, she was back and there instructor.

Yang noticing her error, hit her forehead with her hand, "Crap she didn't want anyone to know her name, shit can you keep it a secret?" Yang asked the girl.

Neo nodded her head, "Alright I will Yang, so she's Ruby Rose-Schnee?"

Yang nodded her head at Neo, "She is but I wouldn't call her by that name, she doesn't know that I told you."

Neo nodded again, and waited for Yang to continue.

"Anyway I'm guessing that is Ruby's wolf right?" Seeing Neo nod at her, Yang continued, "Anyway as I'm sure you saw earlier she passed out, well she hasn't been eating and I mean not eating pretty much all week according to the docs."

Neo nodded in response, understanding what she was talking about but still wasn't sure why she was being told this.

"So Crystal seems to like you and trust you, so I would like if you could keep an eye on Ruby for me, I'm going to be in and out of this base as I have other things to do, so I can't keep an eye on her all the time, she could you please keep an eye on her and make sure she eats?" Yang asked the girl, almost pleading with her to look after her sister.

Neo nodded her head again, but also answered verbally "I will keep an eye on her, and make sure she eats for you."

Yang smiled wide and hugged the girl, "Thank you Neo, now lets get back to the others."

Both girls entered the common room again, with smiles on their faces, Neo went over to Coco and Velvet while Yang went to Blake who was currently talking with Pyrrha and Jaune, talking to them about the aircraft itself.

A/N

Oscar Charlie: OC: Officer in Command

Anyway so I went a little overboard with the France thing I think, I wanted to just show some of the war before the events of the story and also of the strength of the Wraith's and the importance.

Not much else to say, thank you for reading and see you next time. ^_^

Oh and I own nothing except the concept of the Wraith.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N **

**Sorry for a crappy chapter, but it's been sitting on my computer for over a week (around two if not more) but anyway sorry for not posting or anything, around three to four chapters to the invasion and another two till Ruby is inserted to France, this has no meaning yet but it will after this chapter.**

* * *

><p>It had been a month since the dogfight above the North Pacific Ocean and since then Neo had almost stuck by Ruby's side during meals and would be bolder when talking to her, especially about her health.<p>

Ruby still struggled to sleep through the nights but had gotten a little better over time, especially with the fact she was eating more than her normal meal a week routine.

Ruby knew what was going on with Neo as well, with her looking after her. She knew Yang had asked her to do it and she also knew that with the odd numbers of recruits that Neo was supposed to be her new partner.

Ruby pushed these thoughts from her mind as she got ready for the day and looked at her reflection in the mirror in front of her.

She sighed out as she saw the eyes looking back at her as she put her sunglasses onto her face and covered her eyes completely, she wouldn't have time to go to the medical bay today which annoyed her because she needed her monthly injection, shaking her head she walks out of the room and heads deeper into the underground base.

Within five minutes she had reached a secure floor with a number of soldiers guarding a hallway and a door, Ruby walked past them all and headed into the room at the end of the hallway and was meet with three people, General's Ozpin and Ironwood were standing around a table with a holographic displayed lit up.

Alongside the two generals is Major Goodwitch who was looking between the two men as she kept notes for Ozpin and also for use later on.

Ruby approached the table, in regular clothes compared to the uniforms of the three people and Ironwood had medals decorating his chest, but a quick look saw the medals were only for service as a general.

Ruby looked at the table and saw a display of France and the ocean around it, with markers of different ships and forces, ground, sea and air.

Ruby looked over the information, her brain processing it all faster than a normal humans as she took up the information before speaking up, "While some of this plan looks good, the air forces and ground forces deployment is wrong and the way you are deploying the Wraith's is not what they are best suited to, especially early on in the invasion."

As Ruby spoke she noticed that General Ironwood was getting angry at her comments while Ozpin kept a stoic face and Glynda was actually hiding a smirk behind her tablet.

"Who the hell are you?" Ironwood spoke to Ruby, not knowing her identity.

"Captain Ruby Rose, with that done can we carry on please? I have to go to the mainland in an hour." Ruby informed the man.

Ironwood recognised the name and immediately worked it out, while not being happy he allowed her to speak her view.

"Alright then Captain, what would you chose to do?" While not happy with her being here, especially someone younger then him.

"Well I would utilize the ground forces in a hard and fast strike, landing craft while effective leaves a lot to risk if the Russians have defences along the coast which I can bet they do." Ruby informed them all before moving some data around on the holographic table.

"Use helicopters launched from heli-carriers above to drop down and get a large amount of ground forces deployed and then use those forces to push out and meet with landing craft teams and once that is done, a FOB can be set up and from there further progress." Ruby told them of her plan, or at least a rough plan she would let those with the stars on their shoulders to work out the edge.

General Ironwood looked over the ideas and saw some better aspects of the plan but a few things were nagging at him, "How do you know so much about ground deployments?"

Ruby looked to the man, her head to the side in confusion slightly, "Because I served in the army before I went into the air force, I think it was around 7 years in the army before I transferred out." Ruby informed the man as if the information was nothing.

This shocked Ironwood as he worked out her age compared to the age reported on and shown in the media, it seemed as if the information was wrong, and he said as much.

"I thought you were only about 25?" He spoke as if it was fact and true.

Ruby shock her head as she looked at Ozpin, silently asking for permission and once she received it, she removed her glasses.

Two gasps were heard as she removed the sunglasses revelling her eyes. Instead of being the usual grey/silver colour they were instead a pure obsidian black, almost a dark as the night's sky and they looked on in curiosity as Ironwood and Glynda let out gasps at the colour of her eyes.

Once the two recovered from the sight, Ironwood ask the big question "What happened to your eyes?"

"Ten years ago, I and Captain Schnee were given an experimental treatment by the SWSC where we were implanted with a series of self-aware nanites, they were made to be used in medical areas and also in the military to allow soldiers to work better, faster and to also heal minor injuries in the field." Ruby informed Ironwood as well as Glynda it seemed.

"Captain Schnee and I volunteered to take part in the first human tests but something went wrong and I have to have monthly injections to control the nanites so they would not cause side effects."

"What are the side effects of them?" Ironwood asked, curiosity laced his voice.

"Bleeding from the nose is the clearest sign, but internally there is a risk of cancer developing, internal bleeding, and a few other effects that are minor so instead of those risks the injections suppress the nanites and I only stopped the injections when on deployment where I need them." Ruby told them all of what she does and the risks with the technology.

Ironwood nodded his head in response and then decided to carry on the meeting, "Ok then what would you do with the air forces then?"

Ruby moved a few icons around, pushing the Wraiths up front, "Well I'd have the Wraiths come in first, hard and fast carpet bombing the coast line to take as many defences out before a follow up attack from general air forces. I would also make use of the new Wraith deployment method that the SWSC have been producing to deploy special-forces onto the ground to rapidly deploy and defeat defences we have missed with the bombs."

Ruby stated this information as she displayed data about a large box looking item that attached to the Wraith aircraft just below the engines and where up to twenty fully kitted up soldiers could stand and be deployed from.

Ironwood nodded his to the suggestion but something was nagging at him, "How will you be able to drop these forces down when there won't be any pathfinders to provide coordinates and also we have to look at civilians as well, we can't carpet bomb the coast of France."

Ruby looked un-phased by this and expected that being said, "That's why a month before the invasion date I will be dropping into France for a three day infiltration, I have a plan in place to get in and out undetected, and all I need is approval from higher up."

Ironwood looked at Ruby but before he could say anything Ozpin raised his hand, telling them they'd discuss it afterwards.

* * *

><p>Ruby was quickly dismissed after that, being told her plans were going to be talked about for the invasion and she'd find out if her plans were approved as well shortly, she also learnt the date of the invasion.<p>

Today was November 14th and the date for the invasion was set for February 15th the day after Valentine's Day.

Ruby was not happy with this information as it meant she barely had six months in total to fully train up eleven recruits to full Wraith pilots, she wasn't happy but knew she couldn't go against it.

Shaking the thoughts from her head, she made her way outside the base to a Black-Hawk helicopter waiting on the tarmac with all the recruits sitting inside, chatting amongst themselves while they waited for their pilots.

Ruby went around and did her pre-flight checks on the outside of the aircraft before climbing inside to start up the helicopter, looking to the co-pilot seat she found Neo sitting there, watching what Ruby was doing.

Ruby ignored Neo's look as she started the helicopter up and brought them into the air, and towards the main island of Hawaii.

As she landed at the main air force base on the island and once they landed and were brought into a hanger, Ruby spoke up.

"Alright you have until 1800 hours which is when I will take off and go back to base, this will be the only time off you have until after Christmas so get your secret Santa stuff sorted out now and be off." Ruby told the recruits before allowing them to go their own ways while she walked straight out of the door.

Ruby got a taxi towards the outskirts of the main city, to a small part out of the way with a few shops and also a bar sitting in the middle, stopping the taxi and paying the driver Ruby climbed out and headed inside the bar.

Once Ruby walked inside the bar, she had the same clothes she had on since her meeting, even the sunglasses as well.

Walking inside Ruby sat down on a stool and waited for the bartender to notice her. The bartender was a women around the same age that Ruby looked like, she had long bright pink hair that reached to just below her waist tied into a loose ponytail to keep it out of her way.

Alongside her was someone with a similar build but instead her hair was shorter, ending just below her chin and held the same colour.

Ruby coughed lightly into her hand, asking "Can I have a JD and coke please?"

The bartender nodded her head in response and quickly worked on the ordered drink, and when she turned around to give it to Ruby she almost dropped it.

Ruby smirked at the woman speaking softly, "Hey Aria, long time no see."

Ruby was quickly pulled over the counter and into a hug by the woman now known as Aria, shortly after the other woman came over to see what was going on and quickly pulled Ruby into a hug as well.

Once Ruby was allowed to breathe again, she smiled softly at the two women, "Hey you two, sorry I've been gone a while."

Next thing she felt was a stinging sensation on her cheek and her head to the side, looking back she saw Aria's red hand and her sister, Miku had stopped her from doing more.

"Ok I deserve that." Ruby stated as she rubbed her cheek.

Aria glared at Ruby but couldn't stay mad for long, "You left and didn't even tell us if you were ok, you know those men in uniform who come and tell you that someone is dead or missing while in service? Well we had those come to us, to tell us you were listed as MIA." Aria was annoyed and rightly so, they didn't know that Ruby had listed the two girls as family and so were shocked when they two soldiers came to speak to them.

Ruby nodded her head, and the three women spent the next two hours catching up on everything they'd missed while avoiding the big topic in the room, Weiss.

The sisters had known Ruby for a number of years, ever since she went back to the air force academy she met these two girls who were going to school nearby and somehow they became friends, and shortly after became friends with Weiss as well and since then they'd known everything about each other, and the four were sisters to each other.

They talked for a little bit before getting onto the topic of how Ruby got around the place now, when they found out that Ruby was getting a taxi to and from places on the island they told her of what they kept.

Aria was the one to start, "You remember your bike, Crescent Rose right? Well we kept the bike for you and it's out back, we would ride it each week to make sure it stayed good and nothing was wrong with it, in case you came back." She spoke the last bit quietly, all three women knowing what the others were thinking.

The silence hung in the air for a couple minutes before it was interrupted by someone kicking the door open.

Three men ran inside shouting at Aria and everyone inside, "Hands up and hand over the cash." One of the three men asked.

Ruby reacted instantly, having always been armed no matter where she was, even when she'd been to the White House before she was armed.

Spinning around and drawing her pistol in one movement, time seemed to slow down for her as she fired six bullets from her M1911.

The three armed men didn't even have time to react to the new threat as they were focused on Aria and Miku. The three men armed with bad revolvers aimed at Aria as they waited for her to hand over the money.

Ruby fired her pistol six times, two bullets into each of the three men. One in the hand holding the revolver and another into the thighs of the men to stop them from running.

In the same movement her sword was drawn and held to the neck of the closet man and asking in a quiet, soft voice Ruby spoke, "Please surrender peacefully or I will use _lethal_ force." Adding more force behind the word lethal so they would understand that she was willing to do it.

Luckily for them and for those in the bar, the men surrendered and Ruby made them sit on the floor with their backs against the bar.

"Girls could you get a first aid kit and help me patch them up please." Ruby stated as she got to work clearing the wounds and once she got the first aid kit the three girls started to bandage up the failed robbers.

One of the men spoke up while being treated by Miku, addressing Ruby, "You're a Wraith aren't you?"

Ruby winced slightly at the name, all pilots of the Wraiths were called by the public and pretty much everyone after the aircraft they flew because of the reputation of their abilities on the ground.

Ruby nodded her head in response to the question, which quieten the three men up, knowing they never stood a chance against them but one of the men broke the silence to ask something that was bugging him.

"Why are you helping us?" He asked to Ruby who was currently patching him up.

"Because you are someone who is hurt and in need of medical attention." Ruby stated in a flat monotone voice.

The man still couldn't understand why and voiced as much, "But why? I tried to rob your friends bar?"

"Sisters." Ruby corrected but didn't give the man the chance to correct himself, "As soon as the weapon was dropped, you no longer became my enemy but someone who needs medical attention, under the Geneva Convention for actions by soldiers during war once an enemy combatant is no longer a threat then they are treated as a prisoner of war and if they need medical help we are to provide it, it is a war crime otherwise." Ruby stated in the same monotone voice and before the man could say anything else the police arrived.

Five minutes later saw the three men being taken in by the police and to the hospital while those in the bar were questioned, everyone else was questioned with Ruby being last and the officer wasn't getting anyone.

"Ma'am as I said, you need to hand over your weapons and come to the station with us, if you do not comply we will arrest you." The officer stated tensely and nervously, not wanting to get on the wrong side of the woman in front of him, he'd heard of people who carried the same weapons as she did but knew only two were left and she didn't match any Wraith pilot in service.

Ruby cocked her head to the side as the officer threatened to arrest her for the second time, "What would I be charged with?"

"Not complying with a police officer's request, carrying a dangerous and sharp weapon, and carrying a gun without a licence." The officer listed the information off.

Ruby looked on confused at the man, before looking at her two sisters who urged her to tell the officer.

"ID Alpha Romeo Romeo Sierra Zero-One. If you run that ID through your database you will have Captain Ruby Rose, Commander of the Wraith fighter fleet." Ruby informed the officer of her identification, but the officer was younger than most others and didn't know much of Ruby Rose, only what was shown in the media which stated she was dead.

"Ma'am please put your weapons on the ground, you are under arrest for impersonating an officer of the military during wartime." The officer started to move forward as he pulled out his set of handcuff's to arrest Ruby.

The man being inexperienced didn't realise his mistake until too late.

Ruby grabbed the man's arm and pulled him towards her and wrapped her arm around the officer's neck, drawing the officer's weapon to point out at the others. Ruby's lightning fast reactions didn't go unnoticed by Aria or Miku and seemed to be the only two who didn't feel threatened by Ruby.

"Check that ID before you dare accuse me of lying, especially of being a pilot." Ruby pushed the officer away and watched as the others officer's checked on the man but none dared to approach Ruby again and a further five minutes and a check on her identity confirmed her story.

Once she received an apology from the officer who attempted to arrest her, they took her statement and went back to the station or on patrol as the bar was left in peace, though the two owners closed it early.

Once everyone left the three women were left and time was closing to when Ruby needed to get back to the base.

Before she could go however Aria asked Ruby to remove her sunglasses, which Ruby tried to avoid.

"Aria, you don't need to see my eyes I'm fine." Ruby almost pleaded with the girl but she wasn't having any of it.

"Ruby take off your glasses now! No one has that fast reaction time."

Ruby did as instructed and removed her sunglasses revelling her pure black, obsidian eyes to the two girls who both cursed in their mother tongue.

Aria quickly went looking around for a first aid kit hidden away from main use, while Miku started to look over Ruby.

"Why haven't you had your injection, you know what could happen if you don't?" Miku spat out quickly, meaning Ruby was barely able to understand what was being said.

"Miku, Aria it's fine, I'm fine, I had a meeting today so I couldn't get my injection done today so I'm doing it tomorrow, but SWSC are working on a more permanent version where there isn't side effects, but it's only for me, they don't want to risk it widespread." Ruby informed them but was holding back on the next piece of news.

Aria had come back, given up searching for the secondary first aid kit which held a suppressant for Ruby's nanites.

"I'm sensing a 'but'." Aria stated as she looked at Ruby sternly, even if she was her junior.

"I'm deploying in January and as such I need to learn to use my nanites again for offensive and defensive capabilities because of the deployment." Ruby said, having gotten confirmation that the infiltration into France was cleared.

"Where are you deploying where you need to use your nanites?" Miku asked, fear creeping into her voice.

"France, I will be going in a month ahead of the main invasion force to scout out the area and defences and to see what the Russian's have been doing in France or at least near the coast, it will be a three day mission and a month later I will be leading the air forces in the invasion." Ruby stated calmly but didn't meet the eyes of the two women.

She was engulfed in tight and fierce hugs from the two women, this lasted for ten minutes before Ruby said she needed to go, more hugs were given and promises given about meeting before January.

Ruby was lead around the back into a small garage where a bike similar to Yang's Bumblebee was sitting in the middle.

The bike was smaller and the seat was lower to fit Ruby and had room on the back for a second person to sit. The bike was suited for all-terrains and could go over almost anything the world could throw at it.

The colour scheme was dark red and light red, mixing all together to look smooth and the light red highlighted the bike and its edges more.

It looked exactly as Ruby left it three years ago, climbing on and being handed her helmet she took off down the road, and the bike screamed its way towards the air force base she arrived at earlier that day.

Driving fast down the roads and swerving between traffic, Ruby kept the speed anywhere from 80-100mph and only slowed down when she came close to the air force base.

Going through a side entrance she parked her bike and got some support members to secure it in a box and ready to be flown back when she left shortly.

Seeing her pilots not back yet she waited outside the hanger where she saw a number of soldiers all running towards the main gate.

Stopping a soldier, Ruby asked "Soldier what's going on?"

The soldier stopped to answer the woman, not knowing her rank just said, "Ma'am there is a high media presence at the main gate, seems some recruits are caught up in the middle of it."

Ruby didn't like the sound of that and started running towards the main gate, only stopping to get a squad of soldiers to follow her, "You men, on me." Shouted at them while continuing to run at the gate.

Ruby saw a squad of military police waiting just inside the gate, getting ready to go out and get the recruits stuck inside.

Ruby didn't bother to wait and pulled her pistol out as she went outside the gate, firing the pistol in the air, all the reporters ducked down, some even letting our screams of terror.

The recruits were the only ones who didn't duck down, and were relatively calm about a gunshot going off, Ruby saw that they were her recruits and so sorted them out.

In a loud, booming voice Ruby shouted at her team, "Recruits, get to the helo NOW!"

They didn't waste any time as they practically ran past her and inside, going towards the hanger Ruby was in not even a minute ago.

Once the pilots went inside the MP's came out of the base and formed a line at the gate, Ruby wasn't done here though and started moving into the slowly organising crowd more.

"You will surrender all camera equipment to the MP's at the gate, you will submit to questioning about how you found out classified information, and why the hell that during wartime you believe it to be right to ambush recruits and revel classified information to the world." Ruby stated, smoking pistol in hand as she watched the reporters submit to the MP's and be lead inside the base towards the interview rooms.

Ruby made sure to have them send her a report on what they find while she went to the hanger bay to find her recruits standing around talking but when she came in they all climbed aboard and within ten minutes were in the air again before long they were back at the base and resting up before the next day of training.

**A/N**

**So talk of the invasion and of Ruby's solo mission has happened now, I haven't planned too far ahead with only small pieces here and there but the next chapter should be soon as it is almost finished. Anyway again sorry for a crappy chapter but the next one should be better, and thank you too all those who have reviewed and followed this story, thank you ^_^ Oh and my other story Suffering in Silence will be updated soonish but no idea yet as it's hard to work out what to write. Till next time.**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N ****Only thing I want to say up here is that Weiss did ****NOT**** have the nanites that Ruby has, just wanted to say that she doesn't have them, only Ruby has them in her.**

**IMPORTANT NOTE AT THE END**

**Some graphic scenes near the end of the chapter, avoid the part where I talk about the Gun run on the battleship.**

**A railgun has around the range of 200 miles and a speed of Mach 5 which is around 3806.032525 miles per hour, this is the rough statistics for the EM Railgun in development currently, as such I am increasing the range from 200 miles to somewhere around 400-500 miles depending on where the railgun is placed, E.g. on a destroyer or heli-carrier it will be the 400-500 mark, while one fitted on an aircraft (there is only one of them and you'll find out next chapter) will only have a range of about 100 miles if not less due to restrictions that will be told later on.**

**Also a little side note on the Wraith fighters top speed, an F-22 Raptor has a speed at altitude of Mach 2.25, around 1500 mph or 2410 km/h estimated, while at super cruise (sustained supersonic flight) only Mach 1.82, around 1220 mph or 1960 km/h estimated. I'm using the F-22 Raptor as it is the closest to the Wraith fighters, so the Wraiths have a top speed of around Mach 3, around 2.283 mph or 3675 km/h roughly, while at super cruise is about Mach 2, 1522 mph or around 2450 km/h, roughly.**

**So extremely fast and at super cruise while using up lots of fuel the fuel burn is still efficient but the three hour operation time at number speeds is reduced to two hours at super cruise, in a high intense dogfight the fuel can last for around an hour and a half or two hours depending on how much is being done. **

**With that in mind there are very few aircraft if any aircraft are able to keep up with the Wraiths, however they can be shot down as shown in previous chapters. **

* * *

><p><strong>Start of December, just over two months until the invasion of France.<strong>

"Is that everything?" Neo asked as she finished going through the preparations for take-off.

Ruby looked over her controls seeing that it was correct but she couldn't say that outright, "You tell me, you should know all of this"

The whole class of recruits had all learnt to fly together and fight together in just a little under a month, which meant that progress was good and Ruby, Blake and Yang had a good chance to get them all prepared for the invasion.

The only thing the recruits had not done yet was drift with their partners, but that was happening soon at least within the week.

Currently Ruby was taking Neo out for another flight so they could get used to each other because they were to become partners as much as Ruby tried to fight against the higher ups.

"Could you release the parking break then ma'am?" Neo asked politely, as she readied the aircraft.

Neo had been keeping an eye on Ruby ever since Yang asked her to, and had gotten to know the older women as much as she could or at least as much as Ruby allowed her to know.

But Neo was still able to learn a lot, especially about her time in the army and air force, and some of her personal life with the few friends she had.

"Neo, while we are in the cockpit call me Ruby, we're going to be working together for quite some time and I'd rather avoid the formalities." Ruby stated as she released the parking break.

"I understand ma, Ruby and thank you." Neo said once she saw the parking break off and then started to radio the control room.

"Whiskey command, permission to launch Wraith Three for patrol flight?" Neo spoke into her radio.

Glynda's voice came through to reply back, "Permission granted Wraith Three, happy hunting."

With that being said Neo brought the aircraft into the launch tube and within minutes they were out in the sky above Hawaii and the Pacific, going through what a routine patrol would, flying orbits around certain areas and scouting out key locations.

Half an hour into their flight, where they reached the limit of the patrol Ruby picked up radar contacts on the screen in front of her.

Ruby looked at the display and saw around forty enemy radar contacts pop up on the screen causing her to do a double take before radioing the base.

"Whiskey Base, Wraith Three, immediate deployment of Wraith Three and the two Raptor Response forces, code red." Ruby stated quickly, shocking Neo in the back as she felt control of the aircraft lost to her and go to Ruby.

"Wraith Three, copy your last forces are launching now. We've just picked up the radar contacts and in process of launching fighters, you have command of forces." Glynda stated over the radio as a siren going off in the background could be heard.

"Copy that Whiskey Base, start the process of inflight drift with pilots of Wraith Three." Ruby stated calmly, as if it was nothing.

Neo heard what Ruby was asking, and the first thought going through her mind was, 'Is that even possible' and the second was her freaking out over the fact she was going to drift with someone, it seemed this shock was echoed.

"Wraith Three, repeat your last I heard you request a drift while flying?" Glynda's shocked voice came through the radios.

"Whiskey Base that is correct." Ruby said again, and then she heard Glynda start the process of setting up a drift while the people were miles away.

Ruby was on other things however, like preparing Neo for a drift. "You need to clear your mind but be open so I can join with you, it will be weird at first but you will do just fine, just relax and I'll lead you through most of it."

Neo just nodded her head, not like Ruby could see but it was the only response she could come up with as she tried to clear her mind as much as she could.

Glynda counted down from ten and then suddenly both women in the aircraft felt a weightlessness before suddenly being thrown into the middle of a sea.

For Ruby it was nothing new as she had experienced it many times before and her focus was on helping Neo through the experience.

Neo was having a different problem, not being used to this feeling she started to freak out until she felt someone sooth her mind and calm her down.

Once the women pulled through the ocean, she was left in an open area where barriers raised all above around her, it took moments to realise that she was inside Ruby's mind, and there was nothing there and only barriers and defences.

One thing that stood out in Ruby's mind however was a faint drum beat, but upon closer inspection in Ruby's mind that was open to her she saw it, it was a heart beating faintly but solidly in the middle of all the darkness.

Using this Ruby and later Neo anchored herself to this beat, helping the drift to become stable between the two women.

Neo however didn't have any of these defences and so Ruby had free reign of Neo's mind, during a drift unless there was barriers to prevent it, every memory the people involved in the drift had was shown in vivid detail and nothing was hidden.

So every bad memory Neo had, and good memory was shown to Ruby and brought to the front of Neo's thoughts and if it wasn't for Ruby calming her and anchoring her she would have freaked out.

Once the drift settled down and the two minds were connected together, Ruby started to slowly open up and allow access to the knowledge of flying and fighting in a Wraith fighter over the years, giving Neo the experience of a four year flight veteran.

With all this done, Neo was able to feel the connection and could only describe it as being the closest you could ever be to a person, even sex did not come close to how connected the two women were.

With the drift now complete and both women ready to fight, Neo brought the craft on an intercept heading while Ruby queued up weapons and locking four missiles onto four jets while getting the gun set up to fire on the rest.

"Thirty seconds to range" Neo spoke, still not used to how to talk in a drift.

Ruby was already in the process of locking onto aircraft, four at first and then a route given to Neo on the most effective path to go with the guns firing.

Ruby before making range as well planned out the F-22 Raptor intercepts to work in cohesion with each other while in the air.

Neo didn't even have to tell Ruby that they were in range when she felt the vibration of missiles firing off underneath her feet.

Reacting as Ruby showed her to, she pulled up and into the mass of aircraft as Ruby unleashed the two 25mm cannons either side of the cockpit taking down a further six planes in addition to the four from the missiles.

It was clear they weren't prepared for an attack so soon and that hurt the Russian forces in losing a quarter of their attacking force before even realising what happened.

The dogfight didn't take long once Yang and Blake arrived in Wraith Two, and the two eight strong Raptor response squadrons joined in as well meant the fight was over before it even started.

During the fighting however Ruby was able to see underneath one of the Russian planes and saw a metal pole with a hock on the end, showing it came from an aircraft carrier or at least landed on a carrier at some point.

Once the fighting was done, Ruby had Neo bring them back to base as fuel was running low, while Yang and Blake remained in the air for a little longer checking out the area and making sure no one else decided to have a go.

* * *

><p>As soon as Ruby and Neo landed and Ruby started to shut down the aircraft the drift ended and once that happened Neo climbed out and ran away from the aircraft.<p>

Ruby while wanting to go after her knew she couldn't until the aircraft was turned off and safe otherwise something could go wrong.

Once everything was shut down she goes to Neo's room, knocking on the door but heard nothing back and decided it was best to give her time alone as the first drift for people was normally rough on them.

But she heard Neo say, "Go away" Ruby barely heard her say it but chose to respect her wishes and would check on her later on.

Ruby left the hallway and headed to the CIC to start the search for the launch point of the fighters, so once she entered the room and told the operators in there what she needed, they quickly got to work.

"We need to find the launch point of the fighters, they are somewhere in the North Pacific, judging by the way they were coming from and detected it is somewhere near the Midway Islands, use the range of the aircraft and when they retreated to try and work out where they are, use any satellite you can find with optics to try and find them." Ruby stated as she went to work herself trying to find them.

It took a little over an hour before Yang and Blake had returned from patrol over the engagement area, to which they came to help her and give her some food.

"Where's Neo?" Yang asked her sister as she worked.

"In her room, her first drift was rough on her." Ruby stated without looking from the computer.

Blake decided to speak up, having experience coming to the first drift, "If you want Ruby I can go and speak to her." Blake spoke calmly and in an even voice, but Ruby could detect the hints of comfort in her voice.

Ruby nodded her head, as she spoke her voice showed her weariness, "If you could that would be amazing, I haven't had time to speak with her and from what I saw in her head it was a lot."

Blake nodded as she watched Ruby drink the coffee that was handed to her and petted Crystal who was sitting on her lap as she worked, and the black haired girl walked out of the CIC and towards the dorm rooms for the recruits.

As she approached Neo's door, Blake nodded softly on it, getting a response, "Go away Ruby."

Blake smiled slightly as she heard Neo calling Ruby by her name and spoke up, "Neo, its Blake not Ruby."

Hearing Neo unlock the door she entered the small room, the room wasn't personalized much as it was only a basic room with a bed, bathroom, and a desk with a small lamp and a radio for the downtime she might spend in her room.

"May I sit down?" Blake asked, approaching a chair while Neo sat on her bed.

Receiving a nod from the shorter girl Blake took a seat opposite her, "Anyway my name is Blake Belladonna if you didn't know, but just call me Blake it's easier."

Neo nodded her head speaking up, "Ah ok then Blake, and I'm guessing Ruby sent you?"

"I offered but she is worried about you, she knows how bad the first drift can be." Blake told Neo softly.

"It was all so sudden, we weren't even meant to drift until next week and then it all happened so fast." Neo said quickly, tears gathering in her eyes from the memories that came forward.

"I understand, but I'm sure you know it had to be done, it's just a little rough when you aren't prepared and even if you are it is still rough. All the memories you want buried come rushing forward and you can't stop it, at least not without practice." Blake informed Neo, speaking softly to comfort the smaller girl.

"Did you react like this after your first drift?" Neo asked, unsure whether or not she'd get an answer.

Blake shook her head, "No, it was a little different because Yang wouldn't let me go and mope, so she picked me up and carried me to our room so we could talk about what she saw."

"What did she see?" Neo asked but quickly realised she was intruding into someone else's life, "Ah I'm sorry I shouldn't have asked that." Neo quickly stated quickly, worried that she had offended the older woman.

Blake just laughed and waved off Neo's concern, "It's alright, don't worry about it so much, I don't mind telling you, if Ruby trusts you, I know I can."

Relaxing back into her chair, Blake starts her story, "Anyway before joining the course to become a Wraith, and remember this is after Ruby and Weiss had already tested most of it and were in service, but I and Yang drifted and she saw that I used to work for the Russians, in the air force as a pilot."

Neo gasped slightly, realising what that would of meant, especially early on as the war started and the technology was first being used and no one else had it.

"I had left them but it shocked Yang but she saw in my head what had gone on and saw why I left them, but I would run from my problems but annoyingly she also saw I would do that and stopped me. Anyway what I'm trying to say is, trust your partner each of you will expose yourselves to the other many times, especially during war time so trust in Ruby, she'll be able to help you with whatever you need, so try to trust in her like she trusts you." Blake smiled slightly, hoping to comfort Neo and to make her believe her but didn't know how it would work.

Neo thought over what Blake had told her, and understood what happened to her and similarities between her situation and Blake's, curious as to some of the things Blake said.

"What do you mean about partners? And how do you know she trusts me?" Neo asked, a little confused as partners hadn't been announced at all and also she couldn't tell that Ruby trusted her at all.

At this Blake smiled, "Don't tell anyone else but there was a reason there was an odd number of recruits, Ozpin needs Ruby back in action, as you know she's been missing the last couple years although we've known where she was for the most part, at least myself and Ozpin. Anyway she has been the best and most experienced pilot and with the invasion being planned we needed her back, so as an instructor we got her back but she knew what was going on, however you were planned to be her partner and will be her partner when you finish training." Blake informed Neo, telling her a few things earlier then she was supposed to, but she knew it was alright.

Standing up, Blake headed to the door, "Oh and be ready for a mission shortly, they are trying to find the launch point of the aircraft from earlier, and I know Ruby trusts you because she speaks to you outside of lessons and allowed you to look after her." Blake spoke softly as she left the room to go and see the others and maybe get them to take a break.

Neo sat on her bed thinking over what she was told, and quickly decided to follow Blake's advice and started to get into a flight suit and ready for the mission.

* * *

><p>Ruby was on what must have been her fifth cup of coffee by the time one of the operators currently looking through satellite feeds the North Pacific Ocean spotted something on the camera feed, calling Ruby over immediately.<p>

"Ma'am I've found something." The corporal called out to Ruby.

Getting up, Ruby walked over to the soldier's station and looked at his screen. On the screen was a large collection of ships, stationed in a defensive formation around a collection of three aircraft carriers, sat six destroyers and there was even a battleship in the middle alongside the aircraft carriers.

"Well shit." Ruby mumbled under her breath, before speaking up, "Can someone get the General and the Colonel please?"

Within five minutes Ozpin and Glynda had arrived to the CIC and the three were discussing the best course of action and how to attack the fleet to stop them.

"If we start with a salvo from the Railguns to target the flight decks of the carriers and the battleship, after that we follow up with A-10's attacking the destroyers alongside F-22's and F-35's providing cover and attack runs." Ruby outlined a rough plan for taking on the fleet to the two officers above her.

"Sound plan, but what about you and Wraith Two?" Glynda was the first to ask the question.

"Simple, we fly under the radar and as soon as the railguns hit or just before we fire almost everything we have at the battleship to sink the bastard first."

Ruby outlined a basic plan and for the next hour while other soldiers monitored the Russian fleet and also organising attack aircraft for support in the upcoming mission.

The three commander's spent the next two hours planning and coming up with ideas on how to attack the fleet and what they ended up with was similar to Ruby's plan, but by this time Ozpin had already gotten some of the US Navy to start moving a small fleet of Destroyers, two aircraft carriers and even a battleship with a number of support cruisers aiding the main force in the attack.

The air force lead by Ruby inside Wraith Three and with Wraith Two as her wing, supported by five F-35's launched from the carriers and five F-22's launched from the air base on Hawaii, alongside ten A-10's launched from the same place would attack hard and fast shattering as much of the fleet as they can before the US navy came in to clean up what they missed.

It was a simple plan and the timing of the mission needed to be perfect, the navy would reach the Russian's location in two hours, meaning that before that time the air force need to hit them while leaving enough time for the Navy to finish them off before they can repair or sort themselves out.

The mission was set to happen in the next three hours, allowing the Navy strike force to get into position with enough time to spare and as such gave the air force time to get pilots briefed and together.

* * *

><p><strong>Two hours later, one hour till first contact. <strong>

Ruby had gotten her flight suit and armour on and was walking down to the flight deck when she almost ran into Neo.

"Ah hello Neo, how are you?" Ruby asked in her neutral voice, unsure on how the younger girl was.

"Hello Ruby, I would like to apologise for earlier, I…" Neo started to talk only to get interrupted by Ruby,

"It's ok, I understand and even if I didn't we'll be in each other's head soon enough." Ruby stated.

From there no further words were spoken between the two women as they got to the aircraft, although Neo did stare at Ruby's armour.

Ruby's armour was form fitting almost like a second skin like the flight suit they wear underneath but there was clear pieces of armour and Neo could tell that it could protect against almost every calibre bullet expect for the larger ammunitions like the .50cal bullet.

The armour contrasted sharply when being compared to the normal flight suit of the other pilots, which for all intents and purpose was a skin tight suit offering simple protection against fires and against the high altitudes.

On the front of Ruby's armour slithered thin black lines going in and out of Ruby's suit and back into her skin, they seemed to be dancing across the plates of armour in an almost joyous nature, Neo was unable to understand what it was that was dancing across her skin and armour.

Neo shook her head as she saw Ruby look at her, her eyes still hidden behind those sunglasses she'd been wearing the last couple weeks but she knew that her eyes would have a curious look in them.

Once Neo saw the slight smirk she knew she would have to say why she was starring, "You have something dancing over your armour and skin, I was just curious as to what it was doing that."

Ruby's mouth completed the smirk as she felt her nanites dancing in joy at the chance of action after so long being repressed, "I'll show you when we drift, it'll be easier for you to understand that way and less people to overhear."

Neo just nodded her head, blushing slightly at the fact she had been caught starring at her instructor, Ruby all this time but she knew she couldn't go back and change it.

Not long after that moment, they reached the hanger and started to walk towards there aircraft where a group of engineers were arming the aircraft or working out any last minute problems.

Ruby took a clipboard from one of the engineers and signed off on the aircraft and passed it to Neo to get a signature as well, once done she gave it back to the engineer as she took over control of caring for the aircraft.

Neo climbed inside the back seat of the aircraft as she got the systems ready for the start-up process as Ruby took the time to walk around the aircraft as she did physical checks on the aircraft, making sure there were no leaks and the weapons and ammunition were all secure.

Once complete Ruby climbed into the front seat to start booting up the weapon systems as Neo started to start the aircraft up.

It took half hour for Ruby and Neo to complete all the pre-flight procedures and checks that needed to be completed, Yang and Blake had been doing it in a separate hanger around the same time.

When they were on planned missions the pilots took the time to go through the full pre-flight checks, whereas on a response call out most of the checks would either be already done or the pilots would be sitting inside the aircraft on stand-by, normally it would be the former as pilots didn't want to sit around in a cockpit all day.

Once everything was ready for take-off and the engines were idling, Neo started to bring them into the launch tube.

The clamps locked onto the front wheel of the aircraft securing it inside the launch tube and the guide railing running the length of the tube to keep the aircraft on course.

"Control, Wraith Three in launch tube 3 and awaiting clearance for launch." Neo spoke through her headset, as she started to increase power to the engines, changing the soft purr to a loud roaring sound.

"Copy Wraith Three, prepare for drift." Glynda's voice came through both headsets and within seconds there was a feeling of weightlessness and the two minds were linked together.

It was easier the second time around as this time both girls knew what to expect and were prepared for it, the drift was stable and they had joined just when Ruby opened her mind up partly to share with Neo her memories about how she received her nanites and what happens when they aren't controlled correctly.

Ruby was there to give comfort to Neo as she saw the memories of what Ruby had been through and understood more of who she was and her true age.

This only took a few seconds to happen before both girls were ready to carry on with the mission, returning from being in each other's minds to being aware of what was taking place outside.

"Wraith Three, Control, launch tube controls are handed over, happy hunting." Glynda informed the two pilots as the launch tube started to come alive with electricity.

"Copy control, and thank you." Neo replied as she increased the engines to max output as the tube itself was reaching full power.

Thirty seconds later found both aircraft and tube at full power, with Neo pushing the controls forward and the aircraft started to move, and the two rails on either side of the tube started to move alongside the aircraft accelerating it even further.

The light at the end of the tube was getting brighter and brighter until they were finally out of the aircraft out of the tube going at Mach 6 towards the Midway Islands, boosted by the aircrafts own speed and the energy produced by the railgun launch tube.

Next to them travelling at the same speed was Wraith Two, who had launched at the same time and both aircraft started to head towards the Russian fleet.

"Go radio silence until we meet with secondary attack force." Ruby informed everyone over the private net for the Wraith's.

Chatter between the two aircraft and anyone outside was ceased immediately except for talking between the two pilots.

"Weapon systems are all green, cannons clear, missiles ready and laser locks are operating to standard." Ruby started to list through her the weapons on the aircraft making sure they were working to standard.

"So what do you want to talk about while we wait?" Neo asked to break the silence filling the cockpit.

Ruby laughed slightly in response, "Well we don't really need to talk much with the drift in place."

"Well it seems more natural to talk out loud then in my head, it still feels a little weird." Neo said honestly.

"You'll get used to it over time, the more you do it then the easier and more natural it'll feel." Ruby replied back softly.

Before anymore could be said a call came over the radio, "This is Raptor 3-1, with secondary strike force hailing Wraith Two or Wraith Three, you out there?" Came a masculine voice over the radio.

Ruby activated her radio to response, "Raptor 3-1, Wraith Three we are approaching RV point now, how copy?" Ruby answered back in a stoic voice.

"Solid copy Wraith Three, strike force is one mike out." The voice came back, Raptor 3-1.

"We'll be there on time, get ready to move straight away to target, the fleet is in position and awaiting our strike." Ruby replied, checking the position of the US fleet waiting for the air strike.

"Copy Wraith Three, out." Raptor 3-1 finished off.

True to her word within a minute the two Wraith's met up with the strike force and started to head towards the Russian fleet.

As they met Ruby radioed the navy, "USS Gerald R. Ford, this is Wraith Three copy?" Ruby asked for the head of the fleet to answer.

"Copy Wraith Three this is USS Gerald R. Ford, CO speaking." Came a crisp masculine weather voice of the Captain of the ship.

"Strike is en-route to target, 10 mikes to attack." Ruby replied, readying the weapons on the aircraft for the hit and run attack, the large strike force flying low level to avoid early detection.

"Copy Wraith Three, starting our engines."

Ruby cut out the radio once it was confirmed that the naval fleet were starting to move as she started to load up the missiles to fire on the targets ahead.

Within nine minutes they were close to target and the chances of detection increased tenfold as they got closer, all the attack aircraft from the highly advance Wraiths down to the A-10's were all readying every missile in their arsenal to fire on either Destroyers, Aircraft carriers or even the Battleship.

Ruby broke the radio silence as they got into visual range of the fleet, it seemed larger the what the photo's she had seen of them but she knew that after they hit them it wouldn't take long to get a response from them.

"All stations, cleared hot, I repeat cleared hot start your runs." Ruby informed as she fired the two cannons at a destroyer on the outside of the formation, similarly two A-10's fired at the same destroyer but followed up cannon fire with missile strikes as well.

Neo flew the aircraft between two destroyers who were trying and failing to put up an effective AA fire but the attack was too sudden and the cannons were quickly destroyed by the weight of fire directed at them.

The A-10's target were the destroyers on the outside of the formation, the 30mm cannons able to shred through most armours and so with enough bullets going into the destroyers hull they would penetrate through, and with armour piecing missiles hitting the hull as well could easily sink the ship.

The more advance fighters, the F-22's and F-35's main focus were the aircraft carriers, particularly the flight decks to prevent them from launching response fighters to combat the air assault, with weaker 20mm or 25mm cannons they weren't as damaging as the 30mm cannons of the A-10's but they could still rip aircrafts to shreds and the missiles the aircraft carried more than made up for the lack of cannon power.

Before all of this took place however, back on the navy fleet, two railguns fitted onto the destroyers fired an opening salvo, two rounds were fired at the battleships and aircraft carriers hoping to do as much damage as possible while the rest were at the front destroyers, they could only fire around ten rounds each due to the need of stopping the engines when firing the railgun so it can generate enough power to fire.

The opening of the attack barely lasted a minute before the surprise wore off and effective AA fire started to come up.

The Wraiths were relatively safe due to the heavy armour, but the less armoured and slower A-10's were not so lucky, three out of twenty were shot down with no ejections as the cockpits were the first to be hit.

The F-22's and 35's were more lucky as they could avoid most of the AA fire due to superior speed however this didn't stop a few lucky hits to take a couple down.

The attacks on the aircraft carriers by the F-22's and 35's were a success at taking out the runways meaning that Russian fighters couldn't be launched without great difficulty.

The A-10's were able to sink at least two destroyers with a third taking on lots of water but that the rest would be dealt with once the fleet arrived, already those with longer ranged cannons were opening fire on the fleet.

The most success however came from the two Wraiths, Ruby and Neo, Blake and Yang they were the only two pairs attacking the heavily armed and heavily armoured battleship in the middle of the formation, with a large array of weaponry as well made for a powerful and dangerous foe.

The Wraiths however were more then up to the task of taking them on, if they were at a full strength squadron, seven aircraft then all seven would be striking the battleship and more than capable of sinking the massive ship.

This was not the case however, and as such meant that the two fighters were unable to sink the large ship but could inflict massive amounts of damage.

Eighty missiles from the two aircraft were fired at the battleship, over half of those made it past the defences inflicting massive damage across its hull and weapon emplacements leaving it mostly defenceless.

By this point Ruby called for fire support from the fleet, "USS Gerald, requesting fire mission over."

"Wraith Three fire mission approved, upload target and weapon required." Came a reply from one of the radio operators.

"Large battleship with laser spot, Alpha Hotel Oscar six five nine, requesting five railgun shots, over." Ruby asked for as Neo brought them around for another gun run.

Pressing the trigger the two 25mm cannons opened up onto the deck of the battleship just as a reply came in, "Copy Wraith Three, target identified and spot locked, firing now." The operator replied as a large impact hit the side of the battleships hull.

"Wraith Two, runs complete, more back and help A-10's." Ruby told her sister, so they avoided a blue on blue by the railguns.

"Copy Wraith Three, adjusting course now." Blake's voice came over the net.

The five rounds happened in quick succession of each other, each impacting on the hull with a final round hitting one of its front turrets.

Ruby checked the ammo counter on her display as she told Neo to set up one final run against the battleship running along its length.

Neo brought them in high as Ruby depressed the trigger on her controls and the two cannons started to spew out 25mm bullets, most barely penetrated the hull but those unfortunate enough to be on the deck were torn to shreds under the hail of bullets.

Once the gun run was complete, there were body parts and dead bodies littering the deck of the ship even further, this was where Ruby and Neo decided on a riskier move.

Using the thrusters Neo brought the aircraft into a hover in the middle of the battleship, Neo brought the Wraith level with the bridge of the battleship, cockpit facing inside, Neo looked away as she knew what Ruby was going to.

Ruby looked on coldly as she took over control of the fighter for a short moment so she could direct the cannons.

Ruby looked into the bridge to see the men and women controlling the massive ship, she saw some realise what was about to happen and start to run to the door, while others seemed to accept their fate.

"May you find peace in the embrace of the Goddesses" Ruby mumbled softly, a hint of emotion, sadness, entered her voice.

Neo heard what Ruby said and then felt the hammering feeling of the two cannons firing, for once she was glad that the cockpit couldn't hear anything going on outside.

Ruby starred at the bridge as she fired the two cannons into the bridge, shredding apart glass, metal, controls and humans alike they all fell to the weight of fire being poured into the small control centre of the massive ship.

Once Ruby was sure no one was left alive and that the ship was dead in the water she pulled away handing the controls back to Neo.

"All stations, return to base mission is complete, I repeat mission is complete RTB and allow the Navy to clean up." Ruby spoke to everyone over the net.

Ruby heard a series of acknowledgement but responded to any of them as she saw the aircraft start to fly away and she saw the navy fleet bombard the remaining ships who had refused to surrender even though they saw what happened to their flagship.

Neo tried to talk to Ruby during the flight home but all she got was silence, even in the drift there was nothing for her to grasp onto to find out whether or not Ruby was ok, or what was going on in her mind.

It was like it until they landed back on the island base, Neo was preparing to open up the cockpit and climb out when Ruby locked it and spoke the first words to her for almost half an hour.

"I'm sorry, you shouldn't have to see that or be a part of that, I'm sorry for putting you into that situation." Ruby spoke softly, sadness entering her voice for the second time that day.

Neo's face soften slightly as she looked at Ruby in front of her seeing the sadness in her face, for once both girls were glad the glass on the cockpit could only be looked through up close.

"It's ok Ruby, I understand this is war and it happens but I can't stand seeing it as graphic and up close as that was, I'm sorry I couldn't pilot for you." Neo said, guilty at the fact she was unable to do her job.

Ruby shook her head, "It's alright Neo, I'm sorry for putting you in that position, I won't make any promises but if something like that happens again I'll make sure you don't see it or look away, I can promise that."

Ruby replied and both girls were happy with that answer and both climbed out to get de-briefed and to get some much needed rest as they would be receiving a group of VIP's in the next couple days.

As Ruby climbed out of the cockpit Crystal came running up to her, jumping up into her chest. Ruby laughed alongside Neo and the engineers as the wolf licked her face in joy as her owner was back.

**A/N**

**So some things were a little graphic, sorry for that it was a little unplanned but so is a lot of my stories, also got a little carried away, sorry.**

**Anyway the important thing I wanted to ask was, I am thinking of doing a Pokémon x RWBY crossover story, it'll be Ruby x Cynthia story where Ruby is the champion of Remnant or something like that and at the Champions conference they meet or something like that, only problem is I haven't played Pokémon since the fourth generation and need some help with some things on it, if anyone knows a fair bit about Pokémon and wishes to help me please PM, thank you in advance. ^_^ **

**Anyway thank you for reading and following my story and/or favourite it. See you all next time. **


	6. Chapter 6

**About ten years earlier, Afghanistan. **

_Chatter filled the Humvee as Preacher was driving the four strong team of soldiers back to the patrol base before getting a helicopter back to Kandahar airbase to get a plane back to the States._

_Ruby Rose, aka Mother was sitting in the back seat, feet up on the middle section where you stand to operate the top gun position, her weapon on her lap as she starred at the letter in her hand._

'_Dear Captain Rose, _

_I am writing on behalf of the Schnee Science and Weapons Cooperation, we are currently testing a new method of healing battlefield wounds and improving the capability of soldiers on the battlefield._

_You are one of a select group of soldiers we are asking to take part in human trials of this new method, it is using nanotechnology injected into the bloodstream that work similar to anti-bodies to fix and stich any wounds that you may receive, also primarily trials show an increase in stamina and agility have been observed._

_SSWC are aware of your deployment and when you finish, as such we would like an answer as soon as possible so we are able to arrange dates and times for the trails._

_Regards, Head scientist Thomas Green.'_

_Ruby had gotten the letter over a week ago when they were stationed at a patrol base before they went onto their current mission._

_She had been thinking it over for the whole time and decided she would take part, it would give her extra money and also something to do while on her downtime and if it helped soldiers out then she was all for it._

_Ruby's thoughts were halted as an electronic voice spoke a warning to the occupants of the Humvee, 'Contact, right side one hundred metres." The electronic voice was a warning that a gunshot had gone by and gave them the direction they needed to look._

_However before anyone could respond to the warning an RPG hit the front of the vehicle, flipping it under the weight of the explosives._

_Ruby came to not long after the Humvee flipped over and was already crawling out of the side as she heard gunfire and shouting going on outside._

_Ruby was met with her team, all bloodied and bruised firing back at the enemy who had attacked them._

_When Ruby looked around however she only saw one of her team members up and firing, the other two were laying down next to their weapons and she could see bullet holes in their chests and heads, it was clear they were dead. _

_It seemed Voodoo who was in the back seat next to Ruby was the only one still alive, and fighting back. _

_Without any words between the two soldiers Ruby knew what she needed to do and started to pull up her HK417 custom build and started to return fire, screaming into her radio. _

"_Widow TOC, Widow Zero-One requesting immediate G-CAS and IRT, hundred plus PAX attacking us, I have two men down." Ruby screamed down her headset as she tried to get air support._

"_Copy Widow Zero-One, what is your location?" The controller's voice came back a few seconds later._

_Ruby looked at her wrist screen which displayed her location using satellite uplinks, "Widow TOC, we're just off Yellow One, tell the pilots to look for the smoking wreck and heavy gunfire."_

_Ruby replied just as she ducked under an RPG that flew over their heads, she rose back up to hear a cry from her right. Looking over Ruby saw her last teammate, Voodoo with a bullet wound in his face._

"_Widow TOC make that three men down, I need immediate support or I'll be overrun." Ruby shouted down her headset._

"_Copy that Widow Zero-One, two F-15's are in the air and will be with you in two mikes, call sign Top man One-One and One-Two, and IRT will be there in ten mikes." The voice came back to inform Ruby._

_Ruby didn't bother to reply as she raised over her makeshift cover to unload the thirty round clip towards the enemy trying to push them back, most shots made contact with some sort of body, slowing the coming enemy._

_Once Ruby ducked to reload she called in her air support, "Topman One-One, Widow Zero-One, I need immediate strike whatever weapons you want."_

_Static filled Ruby's ear before an American voice filled her ear, "Copy Widow Zero-One, waiting for talk-on." _

_Ruby rose and fired off a couple bullets again trying to do as much damage as possible before ducking under a hail of return fire._

"_Top man, no time, orange smoke is friendly position north of that position is open season, attack any PAX in that area, attack direction west to east." _

"_Copy Widow Zero-One, one mike to target." _

_Ruby pulled out an orange smoke grenade and dropped it a few feet from her as it started to spew out orange smoke._

_She knew it would mark her position for the enemy but she needed to do this to tell the air support where she was._

_Ruby rose up once more and opened fire again hitting and killed at least another three before being forced to take cover again, checking her screen while she was in cover she saw a heavier weapon being moved into a firing position._

_Rising again, not caring about the incoming fire she took aim and hit one of the heavy weapon operators, killing the man instantly with a well-placed headshot._

_For this however Ruby was hit in the arm, causing her to fall down but she quickly recovered to keep firing, but just before the jets came in to attack the worst thing that could happen, happened. _

_Ruby rose up just in time for an RPG to smash into the ground in front of her, throwing her back ten feet in the air, only for a second one to smash into her chest armour as well._

_If it wasn't for the fact she was knocked out after the first hit, the second would be much worse then tearing her armour apart and sending shrapnel into her chest. _

_The two F-15's fired cannons and rockets at the approaching PAX to Ruby's position, Top man One-One saw on the high definition camera mounted on the nose of the aircraft saw what happened to Ruby and radioed the IRT aircraft of the situation to warn the doctors on board the Chinook as to what they should expect. _

_For the next five minutes the two F-15's were the only thing holding back the armed insurgents from getting to the destroyed Humvee and the soldiers laying around it, the two aircraft didn't know whether the soldiers were still alive down there but they didn't need to, to protect them._

_After those five minutes the IRT finally arrived, two British Apache helicopters and a Chinook with Doctors and soldiers for protection and to carry the stretcher on to the helicopter._

_The two apache's started to hammer away at the enemy forcing them to run away or be killed under the hail of bullets and rockets._

_One of the Apache's focused the thermal camera onto the bodies on the ground, finding three of them cold showing they were dead but one of them still had a breath of heat inside, prompted the pilot to inform the chinook who quickly landed to retrieve the wounded and the dead._

_Ruby awoke slightly as she was taken on board the helicopter and the doctors were working on her, one took notice that she was awake and so spoke to her, "You'll be alright, you're badly hurt but we'll get you to Bastion in time." _

_Ruby lose consciousness again shortly afterwards, and she didn't wake again until she was being wheeled into an operating room at Bastion._

_When Ruby awoke she heard the list of wounds she had received while fighting, "Gunshot wounds to the shoulder, both arms and legs, and large amounts of shrapnel in her chest, pieces of her armour and RPG at lodged in there, we lost her once on the flight over and she's lost a lot of blood." _

_Ruby passed out again hearing the words, 'She's flat lining.' _

_Ruby opened her eyes feeling weightless as she starred around the place she awoke, she knew it wasn't in the Camp Bastion operating room anymore, she was outside with a dark forest behind her and a river in front of her, and she herself was standing on the bank of said river._

_In front of Ruby, in the river was a man in a dark black cloak covering his whole body and head, inside the ferryman's boat were a large group of men, all men Ruby had killed earlier that day._

"_Ah Ruby, I've been waiting for you for many years now." The cloaked man spoke to Ruby, his voice was old._

_Ruby looked at the man and asked, "Who are you? Where am I?" _

_The man chuckled at Ruby's answer, "You are a smart one, I am sure you'll figure it out but that doesn't matter at the moment, it is not time for me to carry you over quite yet, but I foresee we will have a great partnership as you will give me more people to carry over." The man said and before Ruby could reply or ask anything back she was thrown back and she woke up once more._

_This time a man was standing above her, speaking to her "Captain Rose, I'm with the SSWC and here to discuss the letter you received, we believe we can heal you up with this treatment but we need your permission in order to begin the treatment, the doctors can treat you as best they can and then we can get you stateside for further treatment." The unknown man was saying to Ruby as she was high on the painkillers she was given._

_Nodding her head, Ruby understood what was being said to her and could just about work out what was going to happen as she was prepped for surgery._

"_Captain I need to hear you say it." The man said to Ruby._

_It was hard for Ruby to speak but she was able to get out the words, "Do it!" Before finally succumbing to the painkillers and going back to sleep. _

_For the next five hours doctors started to work on Ruby trying to stop her from dying and making her stable enough to travel, this took five hours for them to do and without wasting any time she was loaded onto a C-130 with other casualties heading home._

_Once the C-130 arrived in Turkey she was whisked away to a private jet owned by SSWC and taken stateside to receive the new treatment. _

_This was how Ruby gained her nanites, within three months of her being given the nanites and the other two people using the same treatment died from them._

_Somehow Ruby survived and was the only one to live through the process, because of this the project was cancelled and this was where the problems Ruby developed later on came from. _

_Ruby gained a heightened stamina and better agility as well as other effects from the tiny robots flowing around her body, also due to the nanites she started to de-age and becoming younger by almost ten years, if not more._

_As such and with the result of her entire team being killed she decided to change professions, she remained in the military but under a new age and while not secret identity her file was heavily redacted with only her name and address was listed, alongside her qualifications, which surprised higher ups that a woman who was around 17-19 years old had a number of years of service and the same qualifications as a Tier One special forces operator with at least ten years of experience._

_Whenever they asked the higher ups above the academy commanders or even Ruby herself they got no answer even when they ordered her to tell them, she told them it was orders from up top, what she didn't tell them was that up top was referring to the President. _

* * *

><p><strong>Present time, December 15<strong>**th****, airspace above Hawaii.**

When Ruby first showed the memory to Neo she started to freak out but was calmed by Ruby, the second time Ruby showed her with more detail of the aftermath she understood it better and knew what Ruby had gone through and about the nanites running through her system.

The two girls pushed the memories away as they decided to focus on the task at hand, alongside Wraith Two they were flying an escort mission.

Not far from the two aircraft were two F-22 raptors escorting a large aircraft carrying the most important person in the US, and could be seen the most important person in the world currently.

"Raptor One and Two you are relieved, RTB." A voice came over the aircrafts radios and the radio the pilots of the airbus.

When they received an identification code allowing them to leave, both aircraft pulled away and headed to Hawaii airbase for re-fuel.

In the place of the two aircraft, Wraith's Two and Three took up escort position on either side, Ruby made contact with the pilots telling them of the change, "Zero Alpha we are to escort you to Whiskey Base, follow coordinates provided." Ruby uploaded a new flight plan that the large aircraft was to follow.

Inside the aircraft a small girl, around ten years old was looking out the window saw the new fighter take up position next to them, looking out she shouted to her mother, "Mummy is that Ru-Ru's plane?"

The girl's mother got up out of her seat and crouched down next to her daughter as she looked at the aircraft, "Yes, Ruby is in that plane."

The woman smiled at her daughter as she got excited, the older woman was Anya Robinson and she was the president of the United States of America, while the younger girl next to her was her daughter Clarke Robinson and both of them were on their way to inspect and look around the Wraith's base of operations and training area.

Back in the Wraith, Ruby was running through the procedure of the day with Neo, "Alright just to go over it again, we will both be escorting the president and her daughter around the base and we will be armed with a sword and pistol and we will be the only two armed people around her."

Neo just nodded her head in response, knowing the plan already and so focused on flying.

As they approached the base both Wraith fighters went into hover mode as they waited for Air Force One to land and be taken underground to the main base to the large, main hanger underneath the small island.

Once the large plane was secure the two Wraiths went to land and the pilots climbed out to go about their respective duties for the day.

* * *

><p>Ruby was in full armour with sunglasses covering her eyes, while Neo was in her flight suit with a thin bullet proof vest underneath, she has a Glock pistol strapped to her thigh and a sword attached to her waist on the opposite side.<p>

Both girls went to the stairs to meet the President alongside a number of other servicemen who were in full ceremonial dress to welcome their special visitors.

As the President came down the stairs and the end of the row of soldiers saluting her, which she returned back shew as met with Ruby and Neo.

Neo saluted the President while Ruby just put a closed fist into an open palm and bowed to her, once she rose back to her full height she spoke up, "Welcome Madam President, I must ask that your security detail leave their weapons on the aircraft as no weapons are permitted inside the base unless you are a pilot." Ruby spoke confidently and coolly, knowing that the secret service agents would not agree, and Neo who was still in a drift with Ruby, which this would remain like this all day.

Ruby's point was proven barely a minute after she spoke, "That will not be possible, we are responsible for the Presidents safety and we must have our weapons."

Ruby hid a smirk but Neo knew that she badly wanted to smirk at the man in a suit, "Are agents not trained in hand to hand fighting?" Her voice taunting the man but Ruby didn't let him argue back, "It does not matter, this is the policy for the base, the only armed people are pilots, even then there are only four of use constantly with weapons, this is the same for General Ozpin as well so I ask that either you give up your weapons or you remain on the aircraft." Ruby stated coolly again.

Before the man could retort Ruby, Anya spoke up, "Agent Roberts I am sure I will be well protected by Captain Rose and Lieutenant Neo, now would you and your agents please return to the plane."

Any arguments by the agent were halted when Anya glared at the man, who reluctantly got back on the aircraft with his agents.

Ruby smirked, triumph going through her mind as she called out, "DETAIL, FALLOUT." The lines of soldiers all snapped to attention and started to return to their duties for the day, until Ruby and Neo were left alone with the President and her daughter.

Ruby was about to speak up again when a bark was heard, she turned to see Crystal running up to her but instead of going to Ruby she went straight past her and went to Clarke, who laughed and started to stroke the wolf and pick her up.

Ruby smiled at the scene, "Madan President if you would like to follow me we have got a number of different things we wish to show you about the operation of the base."

Anya smiled at Ruby before pulling the girl into a hug, "Now Ruby I've told you to call me Anya when we are not around others."

Ruby tensed up but quickly relaxed and returned the hug to the woman she considered a second mother, "It is good to see you again Anya, you too Clarke." Who had joined in the hug as Neo was left to stare stunned and slightly embarrassed at the sight.

After a few minutes the three women broke the embrace off as Ruby started to talk, "Ah sorry here you have my partner, Lieutenant Neo."

Neo stood up straighter and saluted their Commander to which the President frowned at the action.

"No need to do that, just relax while it's just us, I'm similar to Ruby here and despise all the formality that I have to go through." Anya told Neo.

Neo nodded unsure what to say, luckily Ruby picked up from where she was talking about the day ahead.

"Anyway, we're going to take a tour of the base first and show you around the areas the recruits go, after that if time I'll run both of you through a simulation flight then we'll have lunch at the cafeteria." Ruby told the group of the first half of the day and once she was sure they understood what was going to happen she walked through the next part.

"After lunch I'll take you out in a helicopter to show you the training the pilots have been doing for the upcoming invasion, once that is done and they've been debriefed I'll show you the gym and me and Neo will spar to show you the intense training pilots go through, and that should be it for the day and myself and Wraith Two will escort you out until your Raptors return for the rest of the flight." Ruby finished off the day's schedule for them all.

"Any questions or anything you want to look at or do in particular?" Ruby asked as a courtesy as she did not know of any plans the President had.

The President shook her head at Ruby's question speaking up, "Not really, I think you've covered what we wish to look at for the most part, however I do wish to be taken around the hanger for the Wraith aircraft as well, maybe one of the others like Yang or Blake could take me around while you prepare the gym for your spar, if I remember correctly you fight very intensely."

Ruby finding nothing wrong with what she was asking nodded her head, "I suppose that is ok, I wouldn't mind Yang and Blake looking after you for a short time."

With that agreed Ruby in the front leading them while Neo was standing at the back to cover behind them, while subtle Anya picked up on it and smiled as her daughter started to speak to Neo about all sorts of random things like her odd hair colour or about her own interests.

Ruby hid a smile as she watched the interaction between the two, as she walked them through the common room area, the dorm rooms for the pilots and how they all shared a room except for Neo and Ruby, who had separate, Ruby because she was the instructor and Neo because of an odd number of recruits.

After there she took them into the classroom where Yang and Blake were currently teaching the recruits, as soon as they entered the room they all snapped to attention in response to seeing the President, after being told to relax the four of them went to the back of the class to watch them being taught.

Yang and Blake were teaching how to work together with other air assets, and while even though they had all at least passed Fast Jet training and had a large number of hours of flight time it was more a reminder session, which quickly finished off with a brief about the training session later on in the air.

As they started to get brief Ruby took the President and group through another door in the classroom that had a number of pods set up with a number of wires all feeding into a set of computers plugged into the wall with monitors on them.

"This is where the stimulation training is done, you need at least one hundred hours in these pods before we even think about letting recruits into the aircraft and they rack up around one thousand hours before they go up without an instructor with them. The computers there allow us to monitor the progress and any adjustments they need to make or problems we tell them on here, or afterwards depending on the error."

Ruby told everyone as Neo started to open up two of the pods and started to get them up and running in preparation for the stimulation.

"We use all real battles that have taken place, we'll be doing an intercept that myself and Neo engaged in with Wraith Two, Anya you'll go with me as gunner, while Clarke will go with Neo as her gunner."

Nodding the two guests climbed inside the pods with help from Ruby and Neo, once secure Ruby went to start getting the stimulation up and running with Neo alongside her.

"Neo, she'll need a little help so if you give her some help with the weapons as well as flying the aircraft it'll be fine." Ruby informed Neo, giving her some advice and help.

Neo nodded her head and went back to her pod to climb inside and start the take-off procedure for the stimulation, as Ruby did the same.

It was over an hour for the stimulation to finish with a successful mission, and while nowhere near as perfect as when Ruby and Neo flew it, it was as close as possible with two people who were not pilots in any way, and one of them being a kid.

After they had finished Ruby took them all to the cafeteria to get some lunch alongside all the recruits, who the President started to talk to and get a sense of how they felt with piloting and the war and anything else they could think of.

Before long the recruits all started to leave as they went about getting ready for the training mission, while Ruby took the group to a helicopter that was waiting for them.

* * *

><p>Ruby had gotten one of the bases modified AH6 Little Bird helicopters that had no weapons on board but still had space for people to sit inside and on the edges, Ruby would use this when she wasn't flying in the Wraith but they were training.<p>

Ruby was piloting while Neo was sitting in the co-pilot seat strapped in so she could take over when Ruby was talking or showing off what was going on, with Clarke and Anya strapped in on the sides so they could watch better what was going on outside and on the small island that was used for training.

Currently Ruby was talking everyone through the current scenario, "We have all the Wraith pilots training for the invasion, the plan is to have a bombing run happen at the start with Wraiths and other ground attack aircraft and bombers to smash any enemy position early on that'll be marked by me in a months' time." Ruby started off informing everyone what was taking place and the reason.

"After that they come around for a return flight over the same position to drop off the special forces soldiers, currently we're working making sure they are completely accurate for the invasion." Ruby finished off.

Ruby had a screen between her legs as Neo flew them steadily over the island to show it off before the Wraiths came along.

Once in position the radio in Ruby's jacket started to go off, "Wraith Two to Wraith flight coming up to target, prepare for attack run."

Yang's voice came over the radio, which Ruby had linked to the private channel of the Wraiths.

"They're about to come overhead, keep an eye out for the attack run and give me a heads up." Ruby asked those with her as she focused on the screen which had a map of the island up.

"Asking for clearance." Yang asked for the whole flight, what would be Ruby's call as they got close to France.

"Wraith Flight you are cleared hot, I repeat cleared hot." Ruby spoke into the radio to tell them they were able to drop their bombs.

"In hot." Followed by another call almost thirty seconds later as the Wraith fighters flew over the island and in front of the helicopter.

"Stores" This informed Ruby that they dropped all their bombs over the target and the screen on Ruby's lap started to fill up with red crosses as various positions she had marked were hit with the fake bombs.

"Delta Hotel, I repeat all targets are destroyed, clear for second phase." Ruby told the pilots who were in the process of moving around to come back on themselves.

They all noted how the Wraiths looked bigger with the containers sitting on the back of the aircraft that would house the special forces that were going to be dropped.

This was where the President decided to speak up, "Ruby what are all those markers on that map?"

Turning around slightly Ruby looked at the back of the helicopter, she saw Clarke with her face up to the window as she looked out at the aircraft while Anya was looking at Ruby.

"We've decided that this is the likely positions for different gun emplacements along the shore, so a mixture between ground to ship, ground to ground and ground to air emplacements are all marked on the map, and with each run they need to take out every single one of them as the chances of a follow up run are very slim."

The President looked confused at this, "But isn't there going to be other attack craft that can help?"

"Yes there will be, but all have a certain amount of space they need to target, we're expecting there to be more then what we have estimated and many more hidden AA positions so we've planned for that accordingly."

Before Ruby could speak up the Wraiths came back for the second run, however they were going much slower this time around.

Ruby's map blinked at her as she changed what she was looking at, rectangle areas appearing on the map now instead of the different positions marked on the map.

This time Ruby's radio didn't speak up as the aircraft went overhead the island and the containers sitting on the back were released and fell to the ground, thrusters on the bottom eased their descent making a soft landing, once they hit the ground doors all around the containers opened up however nothing came out.

The Wraiths however as soon as the containers were dropped went supersonic, engaging the afterburners for the quick, short burst of acceleration they needed to get to supersonic quickly.

Radio brought the radio up to her mouth and spoke into it, "Good drop, I repeat good drop, and you all made it in the target area, clear to RTB."

As Neo started to fly them back to base the President voiced her worry about the second run, "They were going extremely slow in that second run, if there are hidden AA positions or if they're not all hit in the first strike won't that mean there is chances of a Wraith being shot down?" Anya asked, worry seeping into her voice.

Ruby nodded at the question, having been asked before by Ozpin and Glynda when she proposed this idea to them.

"We're hoping to get most of the AA position before the second run, the Wraith fighter is also heavily armoured and can shake off most AA fire unless it is hammered with enough of it, or they have AWM's which if they do, I'm hoping to disable them way before the invasion or if needs be destroy the launchers in the first run."

Anya nodded her head along with what Ruby was saying as she continued on telling her about the precautions being done.

"Also starting next week we are planning for an F-22 squadron to join us, they alongside USS Beacon will act as the enemy throwing up AA fire, missile alerts and also intercepts for the pilots to contend with, we're hoping to stimulate what will be happening during the invasion and worse case scenarios as well." Ruby finished off telling them what they had planned for training and for what would take place to help the recruits.

Ruby turned to Neo, aiming her next comment at her, "You are not to tell the others about this, it will be a surprise to test how they can adapt to different situations and for when shit hits the fan, it'll be an intense lesson for them."

Neo nodded her head, "I won't tell them, I promise."

Ruby relaxed once she heard Neo say that, and they all enjoyed the easy flight back to base.

Once they landed and pulled inside the hanger Yang and Blake were there ready to meet them, once everything was powered down the President and her daughter went to explore the hanger while Ruby and Neo went to the gym to set it all up for their spar session.

* * *

><p>Yang and Blake knew exactly where the President wanted to go and what she wanted to look at, walking past all the pilots currently shutting down there aircraft and climbing out watched as the group moved past all of them and went into another side hanger that was locked and had been since they got there.<p>

Once they entered the room they found another Wraith fighter sitting inside, a team of engineers working on the aircraft.

It looked the same as any other Wraith but as the engineers were working on it they saw the bottom underneath the cockpit was opened up and a large rectangle tube was being worked on and shells that looked like artillery shells were being loaded into an ammo container behind the tube.

"It's all ready, correct?" Anya asked to Yang and the engineers working on the aircraft itself.

"Yes, they are just finishing the weapon and testing the loading mechanisms for the gun before they release it for service, but they say it should be done today."

Anya nodded her head, and they started to tell her about the aircraft and its weaponry, and where it varied from the standard Wraith fighter.

It was half an hour before everyone joined Ruby and Neo in the gym, where the spar area had form mats set up in various places around the room and a special glass area was set up for everyone to watch the fight.

While Neo didn't fight as intense as when Ruby and Weiss fought, she could still hold her own against Ruby, even when Ruby was going all out, or at least all out for her when they were sparring.

Ruby and Neo were both in their armour they wear inside the aircraft, the pieces all fitted together snuggly to protect the wearer.

Once everything was ready to go and their guests were safely inside the chamber, Ruby and Neo drew their swords and held them raised at each other.

Without warning Ruby launched herself at Neo, Ruby's nanites flowing freely around her, jumping in between the joints in her armour and going back into Ruby's skin.

The two swords greeted each other with a large banging sound as metal hit against metal, the two fought, Ruby's nanites were moving around her body and her sword augmenting her weapon and ability.

This didn't stop Neo however as she held her own against Ruby and her abilities, and this showed why the two were prefect partners for each other as they knew what the other was going as soon as they moved.

This fight lasted for almost an hour before it was called a tie as the two were getting tired and all could see it, the fight led nowhere as every time one gained an advantage they quickly lost it and it went back and forth but it showed why the two were prefect for each other.

While they were getting a drink and rubbing away sweat, Yang, Blake, Anya and Clarke all came up to the two to congratulate them on the display.

"Well done Ruby and Neo that was a good fight, before we go I want you to come with me to the hanger to show you something." Anya told Ruby, not giving her much of a break from the fight.

The two women nodded in response and followed the group to the hanger, where they were led past all the fighters and the secure hanger.

As soon as they entered the room and saw the aircraft Ruby froze recognising the aircraft immediately, "That's Wraith One." Ruby whispered out, not believing what she was seeing.

Anya nodded in response, "It is, engineers have been working on the aircraft for the last couple years to fix up the damage and to improve the aircraft. It is more armoured then other Wraiths, an increase in armaments it can carry updating its forty missile load to fifty missiles, and it has kept the two twenty-five cannons with the same ammo capacity as before."

"The main change however has been the first EM Railgun fitted to an aircraft, it is a scaled down version to the ones fitted onto destroyers and heli-carriers, it can carry around ten explosive shells with a time delay and out coating to protect it to do maximum damage, the one drawback is when firing the railgun the engines need to shut down for a few seconds to generate the power required to fire the gun, I'm assured that it will not affect the aircraft much when firing the gun however." Anya told the two new pilots of the aircraft everything they needed to know about the aircraft.

Ruby was still shocked at seeing the aircraft that her wife had died in, walking up to the aircraft she saw alongside the cockpit was a dulled golden plaque with a name written on it.

'_Captain Weiss Rose-Schnee' _

Ruby run her hand along the engraving as she held back tears from everyone, once she looked over the aircraft once more she turned to the other people in the hanger.

"Thank you, for this, I thought if I saw this aircraft again I'd react badly but I'm oddly fine and I guess I'll happily fly the aircraft." Ruby said, whole heartedly to them all there.

She got nods in return and Clarke herself run up to Ruby and hugged her when she spotted tears in the older woman's eyes.

Anya hugged her as well whispering into her ear, "Whenever you need to my number is open to you, I know that I am busy but I'll make time for you, also your mission is cleared to go ahead January 14th to the 17th and Wraith Two will be dropping you in with the special jump pack and markers." Anya whispered as well to Ruby.

Anya stepped back from Ruby and the hug speaking up, "I'll leave you and Neo to get acquainted with your new aircraft." Smiling at Ruby she and her daughter left with Yang and Blake to go back to DC for more meetings about the war effort and what she had seen today.

**A/N **

**AWM: Anti Wraith Missile (What killed Weiss in the first chapter, a missile with a series of explosive charges to breach through the armour of a Wraith Fighter.)**

**So just finished this and wanted to get this out, I wish to say that I have up to the invasion of France planned out and what will happen, yes things will change but it's unlikely and I won't know until I start writing to what I change. **

**Anyway I like the chapter it shows a different side of things and also the training that has been happening and will be happening, now I'm either going to do one more chapter before Ruby is inserted into France or I won't, unsure as of yet. **

**Anyway that's all, so thank you for reading and reviewing and anything else, see you next time. **

**Also the chapter when Ruby is inserted into France will be very graphic at points, a warning will be put up at the top of the chapter(s) **


End file.
